Since being sworn into office as Mayor on December 1, 2017, Tim Keller has made dealing with the city’s homeless a major priority. The homeless have reached crisis proportions with them becoming far more visible and aggressive by illegally camping in parks, on streets, in alleyways and in city open space,  whenever they want and declining city services. Keller has proclaimed an “all the above approach” to deal with the homeless costing millions. This blog article explores exactly what Mayor Tim Keller is doing to deal with the homeless crisis to implement his “all the above approach” policy. It’s a policy that is nothing more than a shotgun approach to the homeless crisis  and it is failing.

QUANTIFYING CITY’S HOMELESS NUMBERS

Each year the “Point in Time” survey is conducted to determine how many people experience homelessness on a given night in Albuquerque, and to learn more about their specific needs. The PIT count is done in communities across the country. The New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness (NMCEH)  is contracted by the city to do the survey.

In August, the 2022 the Point In Time (PIT) homeless survey reported that the number total homeless in the city was 1,311 with 940 in emergency shelters, 197 unsheltered and 174 in transitional housing. Surprisingly, the survey found that there are 256 fewer homeless in 2022 than in 2021 which was 1,567.  In 2019, the PIT found 1,524 homeless.

In even numbered years, only sheltered homeless are surveyed for the PIT survey. In odd numbered years, both sheltered and unsheltered homeless are surveyed. The 2022 PIT report provides the odd number years of shelter and unsheltered homeless in Albuquerque for 8 years from 2009 to 2019 and including 2022.  During the last 12 years, PIT yearly surveys have counted between  1,300 to 2,000 homeless a year.  Those numbers are:  2011: 1,639, 2013: 1,171, 2015:1,287,  2017: 1,318, 2019: 1,524, 2021: 1,567 and 2022: 1,311.

https://www.nmceh.org/_files/ugd/6737c5_4ecb9ab7114a45dcb25f648c6e0b0a30.pdf

The PIT survey statistics have never supported the city or charitable provider claims the city has upwards of 5,000 homeless. When the 2022 PIT Survey results were released showing a decline in the number of homeless, the City’s Family and Community Services Department went  out of its way to disparage the results by dismissing it as an “undercount” saying “We need to base our services and solutions on the situation today, not yesterday, or six months ago when the count was taken.” The department likely downplays the results to avoid cuts in its budget and to avoid scrutiny of how the millions of funding is being spent.

What cannot be refuted are the PIT survey statistics over the last 5 years are very consistent.  The survey statistics do not support the contention that the city’s homeless count is near the 5,000 claimed by the private providers who the city has service contracts.

FUNDING INCREASES

On June 23, 2022 Mayor Tim Keller announced that the City of Albuquerque was adding $48 million to the FY23 budget to address housing and homelessness issues in Albuquerque. The City  also announced it was working on policy changes to create more housing and make housing more accessible. The key appropriations passed by City Council included in the $48 million are:

· $20.7 million for affordable and supportive housing
· $1.5 million for improvements to the Westside Emergency Housing Center
· $4 million to expand the Wellness Hotel Program
· $7 million for a youth shelter
· $6.8 million for medical respite and sobering centers
· $7 million for Gateway Phases I and II, and improvements to the Gibson Gateway Shelter facility
· $555,000 for services including mental health and food insecurity prevention

The link to the quoted source is here:

https://www.cabq.gov/family/news/mayor-keller-signs-off-on-major-housing-and-homelessness-investments

In fiscal year 2021 (July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021) the Family and Community Services Department and the Keller Administration spent upwards of $40 Million to benefit the homeless or near homeless. The 2021 enacted city budget (July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022 ) for Family and Community Services Department provides for affordable housing and community contracts totaling $22,531,752, emergency shelter contracts totaling $5,688,094, homeless support services contracts totaling $3,384,212, mental health contracts totaling $4,329,452, and substance abuse contracts for counseling contracts totaling $2,586,302.

The link to the 2021-2022 city approved budget is here:

https://www.cabq.gov/dfa/documents/fy22-approved-budget-numbered-w-hyperlinks-final.pdf

Mayor Keller  has increased funding to the Family Community Services Department for assistance to the homeless with $35,145,851 million spent in fiscal year 2021 and $59,498,915 million being spent in fiscal 2022  with the city adopting a “housing first” policy.

Mayor Keller’s 2022-2023 approved budget significantly increases the Family and Community Services budget by $24,353,064 to assist the homeless or near homeless by going from $35,145,851 to $59,498,915.

The 2022-2023 enacted budget for the Department of Community Services is $72.4 million and the department is funded for 335 full time employees, an increase of 22 full time employees.  A breakdown of the amounts to help the homeless and those in need of housing assistance is as follows:

$42,598,361 total for affordable housing and community contracts with a major emphasis on permanent housing for chronically homeless. It is $24,353,064 more than last year.

$6,025,544 total for emergency shelter contracts (Budget page 102.), down $396,354 from last year.

$3,773,860 total for mental health contracts (Budget page105.), down $604,244 from last year.

$4,282,794 total for homeless support services, up $658,581 from last year.

$2,818,356 total substance abuse contracts for counseling (Budget page 106.), up by $288,680 from last year.

The link to the 2022-2023 budget it here:

https://www.cabq.gov/dfa/documents/fy23-proposed-final-web-version.pdf

The 2022-2023 adopted city contains $4 million in recurring funding and $2 million in one-time funding for supportive housing programs in the City’s Housing First model and $24 million in Emergency Rental Assistance from the federal government.

CITY SPENDING PER HOMELESS

The amount the city is spending for services per year per homeless person who are receiving some sort of city services can be calculated for 2022-2023 budget year.

The 2022  Point in Time Report reflects that the number of emergency sheltered homeless is 940 with 174 in “transitional housing” for a total of 1,114.   Therefore, the city is spending a minimum of $15,171.05   per homeless person, per year through the charitable service providers calculated as follows:   $16,900,554 (total of service contracts for 2022-2023) DIVIDED BY 1,114 (940 Emergency Sheltered and 174 Transitional housing) = $15,171.05.

The $15,171.05 per person, per year is for services only by contracted providers and does not include the $4.5 million operation costs for the Westside 24/7 shelter nor the budgeted operating costs for the new Gateway Homeless Shelter when it is fully operational. 

 Further, the amount does not include the $42,598,361 allocated for affordable housing and permanent housing for the near homeless or chronically homeless with the actual number of those receiving city funding  unavailable.

 TWO CITY SHELTERS FOR THE HOMELESS

During the past 5 years, Mayor Keller has established two 24/7 homeless shelters, including purchasing the Loveless Gibson Medical Center for $15 million to convert it into a homeless shelter.

The city is funding and operating 2 major shelters for the homeless, one fully operational with 450 beds and one that will be fully operational by Winter that will assist upwards 1,000 homeless and accommodate 330 a night. Ultimately, both shelters are big enough to be remodeled and provide far more sheltered housing.

WESTSIDE EMERGENCY HOUSING CENTER

It was on October 22, 2019 that Mayor Tim Keller announce that the Westside Emergency Housing Center (WEHC) would become a 24/7 homeless shelter. It is a “one-stop-shop” with service providers providing medical services, case management and job placement services. It costs about $4.5 million a year to operate the shelter with about $1 million of that $4.5 million invested in transporting people to and from the facility.

https://www.krqe.com/news/albuquerque-metro/city-plans-on-expanding-services-at-westside-emergency-housing-center/

The Westside Emergency Housing Center has upwards of 450 beds to accommodate the homeless on any given night. The shelter offers shelter to men, women, and families experiencing homelessness in Albuquerque. While staying at the WEHC, the homeless have access to a computer lab, showers, medical examination rooms, and receive three meals a day. The WEHC is a 24/7 operation and has a staff of 80 to assist those who stay at the shelter.  The shelter does connect men and women to permeant housing and other resources.

GATEWAY HOMELESS SHELTER

Since being sworn in as Mayor on December 1, 2017, Mayor Tim Keller made it known that building a new city operated homeless shelter was his top priority. Keller deemed that a 24-hour, 7 day a week temporarily shelter for the homeless critical towards reducing the number of homeless in the city.

On April 6, 2021, Mayor Tim Keller held a press conference in front of the Gibson Medical Center, formerly the Lovelace Hospital, to officially announce the city had bought the massive 572,000 square-foot building that has a 201-bed capacity, for $15 million.  Keller announced that the massive facility would be transformed into a Gateway Center Homeless Shelter. On September 3, 2022 it was reported that the ABQ Gateway Center will likely to open some time this winter.  According to the 2022-2023 approved city budget,  $1,691,859 has been allocated for various vendors to operate Westside Emergency Shelter Center.

The city is planning to assist an estimated 300 more homeless residents and connect them to other services intended to help secure permanent housing. The new facility is intended to serve all populations of men, women, and families. Further, the city wants to provide a place anyone could go regardless of gender, religious affiliation, sobriety, addictions, psychotic condition or other factors.

The city facility is to have on-site case managers that would guide residents toward counseling, addiction treatment, housing vouchers and other available resources.  The goal is for the new homeless shelter to provide first responders an alternative destination for the people they encounter known as the “down-and-out” calls.

The city estimates 1,500 people could go through the drop-off each year. The “dropoff  for the down and outs” will initially have 4 beds.  It is primarily imagined as a funnel into other services.  While that likely will include other on-site services, city officials say it will also help move people to a range of other destinations, including different local shelters, or even the Bernalillo County-run CARE Campus, which offers detoxification and other programs.

Interior demolition and remodeling of the 572,000 square foot building has been going on for a number of months to prepare the facility for a homeless shelter.  The beds for 50 women as planned and for the first responder drop-off is to come online this winter. The city plans to launch other elements of the 24/7 shelter by next summer.

According to Keller, the city’s plan is to continue adding capacity, with ultimate plan to have a total of 250 emergency shelter beds, and 40 beds for medical sobering and 40 beds for medical respite beds for a total of 330 bed capacity.  Counting the other outside providers who lease space inside the building, city officials believe the property’s impact will be significant.

The link to quoted news source material is here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/2529657/abq-gateway-center-likely-to-open-some-time-this-winter-ex-mayor-say.html

“NO ARREST” POLICY

The homeless has reached crisis proportions with the homeless having become far more visible and aggressive by  illegal camping  in parks, on streets, in alleyways and in city open space areas.   When it comes to the “homeless crimes” of illegal camping, criminal trespassing and loitering, Mayor Keller  acquiesced with the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) implementing  a “no arrest” policy. Orders for immediate removal their camps are not given to the homeless.  Instead homeless are given 72 hours to vacate illegal campsite locations essentially giving them permission to continue to violate the law for 72 hours.  

APD’s policy is that arrests are the very last resort to deal with the homeless and citations are to be issued. At one time, police arrest discretion of the homeless was taken away from APD officers and APD could not arrest until it was approved by the Family and Community Services Department and after it conducted outreach measures. This policy has since been rescinded.  APD is allowed to make arrests only when the circumstances warrant such as a violent felony endangering public safety.

For 5 years, Mayor Keller allowed Coronado Park to become a “de facto” city sanctioned homeless encampment allowing  it to become  a public nuisance.  Criminal activity spiked at the park over four years. The city park had an extensive history lawlessness including drug use, violence, murder, rape and mental health issues. City officials said it was costing the city $27,154 every two weeks or $54,308 a month to clean up the park only to allow the homeless encampment to return.

On July 25, Mayor Tim Keller, calling Coronado  Park “the most dangerous place in New Mexico” was forced to close down the park  because of violent crimes, including 4 murders,  and environmental ground contamination concerns without any plan for dealing with the 75 to 125 homeless that were displaced.   City officials said that upwards 120 people camp nightly at the park. It should never be forgotten by anyone that it was Keller who created “the most dangerous place in New Mexico”

SAFE OUTDOOR SPACES

It was on June 6, 2022 the City Council enacted an amendment to the Integrated Development Ordinance (IDO) to allow for city sanctioned “Safe Outdoor Spaces”. “Safe Outdoor Spaces” are city sanctioned homeless encampments located in open space areas that will allow upwards of 50 homeless people to camp, require hand washing stations, toilets and showers, require a management plan, 6-foot fencing and provide for social services.

Under the adopted amendment, Safe Outdoor Spaces are allowed in some non-residential and mixed-use zones and must be at least 330 feet from zones with low-density residential development. The restrictions do not apply to campsites operated by religious institutions. Under the IDO amendments, Safe Outdoor Spaces are allowed for up to two years with a possible two-year extension.

On June 22, after tremendous public outcry and objections, two bills were introduced that would repeal safe outdoor spaces. One bill introduced would stop the city from accepting or approving Safe Outdoor Space applications and the other will eliminate “safe outdoor spaces” from the zoning code altogether.

On July 30, Dawn Legacy Point filed the very first application  for a ‘Safe Outdoor Space’ homeless encampment. The homeless encampment is intended to provide accommodations for upwards of 50 women who are homeless and who are “sex-trafficking victims”.  The homeless encampment  is  to be located on vacant land at 1250 Menaul Blvd, NE which  consists of two large parcels of property owned by the city with an assess value of $4,333,550.  The Family Community Service Department gave Dawn Legacy preferential treatment to Dawn Legacy and agree to help fund the project.  On August 8, the City Planning Department unilaterally and behind closed doors rushed to approve the Dawn Legacy Point application and did not give notice to adjoining and surrounding property owners. Seven appeals were filed and on October 10, a city Land Use Hearing Officer a his decision and REMANDED the Dawn Legacy Point application back to the city Planning Department for further review after  finding “substantial and meaningful violations of due process” of law to the appellants

On Friday, August 26, Mayor Tim Keller announced he vetoed the Albuquerque City Council legislation that placed a moratorium on “Safe Outdoor Spaces.”   Keller argued in his veto message that the city cannot afford to limit its options for addressing homelessness and said he understood how new policies sometimes take time to refine after testing.  Keller wrote in part in his veto message:

“We need every tool at our disposal to confront the unhoused crisis and we need to be willing to act courageously. … However, reasonable time, testing and piloting has not been allowed”.

Keller’s veto of the one-year moratorium on SOS encampments was upheld by the city council.

The link to the quoted news source article is here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/2527750/new-keller-veto-aims-to-save-safe-outdoor-spaces.html

The repeal legislation was referred to the Environmental Planning Commission (EPC) for review and hearing and to make recommendations to the City Council.   On Thursday, September 15, the Environmental Planning Commission (EPC) voted to repeal “Safe Outdoor Spaces” from  the Integrated Development Ordinance (IDO) by  deleting  all references of Safe Outdoor Spaces effectively outlawing the conditional land use anywhere in the city.

“HOUSING FORWARD ABQ” PLAN

On October 18, Mayor Tim Keller announced his “Housing Forward ABQ” plan. It is a new “multifaceted initiative” where Mayor Keller is hoping to add 5,000 new housing units across the city by 2025 above and beyond what private industry normally creates each year. As it stands now, the city issues private construction permits for 1,200 to 1,500 new housing units each year. According to Keller, the city is in a major housing crisis and studies show the city needs as many as 13,000 to 30,000 new housing units.

To add the 5,000 new housing units across the city by 2025, Keller  is proposing that the City of Albuquerque fund and be involved with the construction of new low income housing to deal with the homeless or near homeless.    The strategy includes “motel conversions” and  a zoning code “rebalance” to enhance density.  It includes allowing “casitas” which under the zoning code are formally known as “accessory dwelling” units.  Keller wants to allow “different forms of multi-unit housing types” on residential properties.   63% of the city’s housing  is single-family detached homes.

According to Keller, the city will also be pushing to convert commercial office space into to residential use. The Keller administration is proposing $5 million to offset developer costs with the aim of transitioning 10 properties and creating 1,000 new housing units.  The new plan also includes “motel conversations” which is the city purchasing and turning old and existing motels into housing.

Keller argues in part that his “Housing Forward ABQ”  plan will bolster the construction workforce and  address current renter concerns.  According to a news release, the Keller Administration intends to seek to change the law to protect tenants from “predatory practices such as excessive application fees, clarifying that deposits must be refundable and capping other fees, especially in complexes that accept vouchers.”

During his October 18 news conference announcing his “Housing Forward ABQ” Keller emphasized the importance of amending the city’s Integrated Development Ordinance (IDO).  Keller  had this to say:

“Right now our zoning code will never allow us to meet the housing demand in the city … If you want a place to advocate, if you want a place to change policy, if you want a place to argue, it’s all about the IDO.”

City Council President Isaac Benton has long advocated for ways to increase the housing stock, previously pushing to legalize casitas.  In 2016, the city council rejected his  amid  neighborhood association opposition. Benton had  this to say:

“We’ve had these arguments over the years with some of my most progressive neighborhoods that don’t even want to have a secondary dwelling unit be allowed in their backyard or back on the alley. … You know, we’ve got to change that discussion. We have to open up for our neighbors, of all walks of life, to be able to live and work here.”

https://www.abqjournal.com/2541186/mayor-sets-goal-of-5k-housing-units-by-2025.html

“MOTEL CONVERSIONS”

“Motel conversions” includes affordable housing where the City’s Family & Community Services Department would acquire and renovate motels to develop low-income affordable housing options. The existing layout of the motels makes it cost-prohibitive to renovate them into living units with full sized kitchens. An Integrated Development Ordinance amendment will provide an exemption for affordable housing projects funded by the city, allowing kitchens to be small, without full-sized ovens and refrigerators. It will require city social services to regularly assist residents.  The homeless or the near homeless would be offered the housing.

One area of the city that has been targeted in particular by the Keller Administration for motel conversions is “Hotel Circle” in the North East Heights. Located in the area are a number of motels in the largest shopping area in SE and NE Albuquerque near I-40. The businesses in the area include Target, Office Depot, Best Buy, Home Store, PetCo and the Mattress Store  and restaurants such as  Sadies, the Owl Café, and Applebee’s  and other businesses. The city is already seeking to buy Sure Stay Hotel on Hotel Circle SE and has its eye on purchasing the abandoned and boarded up Ramada Inn for a motel conversion.

ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY

Mayor Tim Keller has taken full advantage of loopholes within the Integrated Development Ordinance (IDO) to cut out general public involvement and input to promote and implement his shotgun “all the above approach” to the city’s homeless crisis. He has done so with the help and assistance of his Family and Community Services Department and the Planning Department who carry out his political agenda over public objections, such was the case with the  Safe Outdoor Spaces and the application process for Dawn Legacy Point.

When Keller says “Right now our zoning code will never allow us to meet the housing demand in the city … If you want a place to advocate, if you want a place to change policy, if you want a place to argue, it’s all about the IDO”  what he really means and what he wants is to be able to do whatever he wants without public input or interference from anyone.

Keller has also taken full advantage of City Council’s ineptness, disarray and failed leadership to implement his “all the above approach”  and his shotgun policies.  That may be “good politics” in Keller’s mind, but it sucks for the general public.  Keller does not realize that his actions are the very type of politics that creates hostility and mistrust of politicians.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The postscript to this blog article provides details on how the public have been cut out of the review process.

The millions being spent each year by the city to deal with the homeless with the “housing first” policy should be more than sufficient to deal with city’s actual homeless numbers, yet Keller demands and wants more from the public.  He wants Safe Outdoor Spaces and his “Housing Forward Abq” plan despite both being ill advised.

SAFE OUTDOOR SPACES

Safe Outdoor Spaces encampments violates the city’s “housing first” policy by not providing a form of permanent housing and with reliance on temporary housing.   Safe Outdoor Spaces are not the answer to the homeless crisis. “Safe Outdoor Spaces” will be a disaster for the city as a whole. They will destroy neighborhoods, make the city a magnet for the homeless and destroy the city’s efforts to manage the homeless through housing.  Safe Outdoor Spaces represent a very temporary place to pitch a tent, relieve oneself, bathe and sleep at night with rules that will not likely be followed. The answer is to provide the support services, including food and permanent lodging, and mental health care needed to allow the homeless to turn their lives around, become productive self-sufficient citizens and no longer dependent on relatives or others

“MOTEL CONVERSIONS” AND  KELLER’S “HOUSING FORWARD ABQ”

“Motel conversions” and  Keller’s “Housing Forward Abq” plan to add 5,000 new housing units across the city by 2025 above and beyond what private industry normally creates each year makes the false presumption that the city’s need for 13,000 to 30,000 new housing units is somehow related to the homeless crisis.  It is not.  The housing shortage is related purely to economics and the development community’s inability to keep up with supply and demand and the public’s inability to purchase housing. There is also a shortage of rental properties.

Keller pushing to convert commercial office space into to residential is misplaced and presumes that commercial property owner’s would be amenable to replacing their more lucrative commercial property into residential property which is a complete reversal from what normally happens.  It is far more common for residential property owners to seek commercial zoning changes for their properties. The Keller administration is proposing $5 million to offset developer costs with the aim of transitioning 10 properties and creating 1,000 new housing units.

It should not come as any surprise to anyone that Mayor Tim Keller wants and is promoting “motel conversions”. He refused to take any position on IDO when he was running for Mayor the first time in 2017. Besides, Keller is known for his own self-promotion and ONE ABQ slogan. Zoning issues tend to be very boring and difficult to integrate into slogans, unless of course it’s your own program and calling it “Housing Forward Abq”.  Perhaps Keller should change his slogan “ONE ABQ” to “ONE ABQ, ONE KELLER DEVELOPMENT”.

FINAL COMMENTARY

Being homeless is not a crime. The city has a moral obligation to help the homeless, mentally ill and drug addicted. The city is meeting its moral obligation to the homeless  with the millions being spent each year for services, shelter and housing. The blunt truth is that  Mayor Tim Keller, the City Council and the city will never solve homelessness  and it’s not at all likely that the city will ever be free of the homeless. All that can and must be done is to manage the homeless crisis but there must be limitations.  Adopting an “all the above approach” is just plain foolish on a number of levels.

Spending millions on homeless services, shelters and housing and having no visible impact on homeless squatters who have no interest in city shelters, beds, motel vouchers and who want to live on the streets and camp in city parks, in alleys and trespass as they choose is at worse evidence of incompetent management  and at best wasting city  resources.  Keller and company need to do a better job dealing with the homeless and those who refuse services.  Mayor Keller needs to take a more measured approach which must include reliance on law enforcement and perhaps the courts, such as civil mental health commitment hearings, to get those who refuse services and to get them off the streets in order to get them the mental health care and drug rehabilitation they desperately need.

“Safe Outdoor Spaces” and “motel conversions” will be a disaster for the city as a whole. They will destroy neighborhoods and established business areas and make the city a magnet for the homeless.  Mayor Tim Keller has mishandled the homeless crisis, including the closing of Coronado Park, supporting Safe Outdoor Spaces and now motel conversions.  All 3 will be Mayor Keller’s symbols and legacy of failure as the city deals the city’s most vulnerable population, the homeless.  What Mayor Tim Keller is doing is cramming Safe Outdoor Spaces and motel conversions down the throats of the community to promote his own political agenda, something he must be held accountable for should he seek another term or higher office.

____________________________

POSTSCRIPT

THE INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT ORDINANCE

It was in 2015 that former Mayor Richard Berry during his second term started the rewrite process of the city’s comprehensive zoning code and comprehensive plan to rewrite the city’s entire zoning code. It was initially referred to as the  ABC-Z comprehensive plan and later renamed the Integrated Development Ordinance (ID0) once it was pasted.  In 2015, there were sixty (60) sector development plans which governed new development in specific neighborhoods. Forty (40) of the development plans had their own “distinct zoning guidelines” that were designed to protect many historical areas of the city.

The stated mission of the re write of the comprehensive plan was to bring “clarity and predictability” to the development regulations and to attract more “private sector investment”. The city’s web site on the plan rewrite claimed the key goals include “improve protection for the city’s established neighborhoods and respond to longstanding water and traffic challenges by promoting more sustainable development”. Economic development and job creation was argued as a benefit to rewriting the Comprehensive Plan.

Under the enacted Integrated Development Ordinance (IDO) the number of zones went from 250 to fewer than 20, which by any measure was dramatic. Using the words “promoting more sustainable development” means developers want to get their hands-on older neighborhoods and develop them as they see fit with little or no regulation at the best possible cost to make a profit. The IDO also granted wide range authority to the Planning Department to review and unilaterally  approve development applications without public input.

https://publicpolicy.wharton.upenn.edu/live/news/1581-impacts-of-gentrification-a-policy-primer/for-students/blog/news.php

Former Mayor Richard Berry said the adoption of comprehensive plan was a much-needed rewrite of a patchwork of decades-old development guidelines that held the city back from development and improvement.  The enactment of the comprehensive plan was a major priority of Berry before he left office on December 1, 2017. The Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce and the construction and development community, including the National Association of Industrial and Office Parks (NAIOP), pulled all stops to get the plan adopted before the October 3, 2017 municipal election.  IDO was enacted with the support of Democrats and Republicans on the City Council despite opposition from the neighborhood interests and associations.

The rewrite was a rush job.  It took a mere 2 years to rewrite the entire zoning code  and it emerged as the Integrated Development Ordinance.  It was in late 2017, just a few weeks before the municipal election and the election of Mayor Tim Keller, that  the City Council  rushed to vote for the final adoption of the IDO comprehensive plan.  Outgoing City Councilor Republican Dan Lewis who lost the race for Mayor Tim Keller voted on the IDO refusing to allow the new council take up the IDO.

Critics of the Integrated Development Ordinance said it lacked public discussion and representation from a number of minority voices and minority communities.  They argued that the IDO should be adopted after the 2017 municipal election. There is no doubt that IDO will have a long-term impact on the cities older neighborhoods and favors developers. The intent from day one of the Integrated Development Ordinance was the “gutting” of long-standing sector development plans by the development community to repeal those sector development plans designed to protect neighborhoods and their character. The critics of the IDO argued that it made “gentrification” city policy giving developers free reign to do what they wanted to do without sufficient oversight.

PUBLIC CUT OUT OF THE PROCESS

The enacted Integrated Development Ordinance has provisions to allow the City Council to adopt major amendments every two years and make major changes to it. The IDO blatantly removes the public from the development review process, and it was the Planning Department’s clear intent to do so when it drafted the IDO.

On July 12, 2019, a guest editorial column was published by the Albuquerque Journal written by Dr. Joe L. Valles, President, Grande Heights Neighborhood Association. The column dealt with the city’s Integrated Development Ordinance (IDO). Portions of the guest column reveal just how bad the public has been shut out of the redevelopment process:

“There’s widespread disappointment and frustration with the Planning Department’s ongoing actions regarding the Integrated Development Ordinance (IDO). The IDO promise was “to ensure a high-quality built environment for nearby property owners and neighbors.” Without a vision for Albuquerque, however, unenforced and arbitrary rules in the IDO neither create new design nor ensure a high-quality built environment, and planners aren’t asking for it.  …

The Planning Department also has a problem with strict adherence to state statute; if not de-facto violations of the law, then due-process breaches and potential violations of the Open Meetings Act ignore its spirit. The Development Review Board (DRB) was granted gratuitous discretionary power by the IDO to hold hearings and grant variances without the requisite conformity to strict standards. The Land-Use Hearing Officer (LUHO) warned planners about potential problems in courts.

Obviously, the City Council heard, because … [city] councilors unanimously passed R-19-150. This resolution sponsored by Councilor Trudy Jones allows the DRB to further circumvent strict state statute requirements. “To hold public hearings”‘ was changed to “hold meetings” and “variance” was replaced with “waiver.” These changes further diminish the process and discredit policy making. It’s policy change without public engagement favoring one sole stakeholder – the development community. If these are the kinds of “fixes” we’re going to get, then we’re stooping to a new low.

The IDO blatantly removes the public from the development review process, and it was the planners’ clear intent to do so. Telling are 2013-14 inter-office planning memos [which state]:

“Keep neighborhoods under control … Rebalancing Neighborhood Association input into the process … need to either remove from (the) process or give them a charge … growth no matter what … eliminating sector plans …”

The flaw is that against written promises, coupled with planners’ open advocacy on behalf of commercial development interests, they created an unbalanced domination by the one stakeholder. Rather than standing as honest brokers, planners continue in their staff reports and testimony to present the most favorable cases for certain developers or their agents with apparent imbedded undue influence within the city.

Although initially touted as a badly needed document to clean-up conflicting zoning regulations, planning staff …  identified over 500 “fixes” needed to amend the IDO. Astute neighborhood people have also identified numerous essential amendments.

It’s what happens to a document that’s constructed “in a fairly strict timeline in order to complete this monumental project during the remainder of the Mayor’s term and we need to get this RFP out by early June in order to accomplish that.”

Thus, in a special meeting, City Council passed the IDO on the eve of the mayoral election. The clear aim was to get Mayor (Richard) Berry to sign it before Mayor Keller took office. Six of 9 councilors, city planners and supporters of the IDO gave in to the development industry, wiped out publicly supported sector plans and left resident landowners hanging.

Property owners wanted to keep their sector plans – their sense of place. IDO form-based zones were created to set the forms of buildings and allow development to proceed more quickly without public hearings, something easier done in an urban environment like Downtown.

 The flaw? Without visionary planning you can’t reasonably attempt to create “downtown environments” citywide. After all, a key objective of this effort was “to develop zoning that protects neighborhoods while encouraging the revitalization of commercial areas.” Where are those neighborhood protections?”

You can review the guest editorial article at the below link:

https://www.abqjournal.com/1339342/homeowners-left-out-of-abqs-development-ordinance-fixes-ex-planning-department-is-cutting-neighborho

 

 

 

Below is a guest opinion column submitted for publication on this blog by Colleen Aycock, a resident of Four Hills in SE Albuquerque. She is an organizer of “Women Taking Back Our Neighborhoods”. She has a Ph.D. in Rhetoric from the University of Southern California and has spent her professional life teaching writing at the college level, editing business magazines, and writing biographies for the U. S. Capitol, Statuary Hall. She serves on the Editorial Board for the International Boxing Research Organization (IBRO), has authored 5 books on boxing. She has been inducted into the New Mexico Boxing Hall of Fame. She has spent a lifetime in active civic volunteerism, having been president of Rotary Clubs in Texas and Maryland. She is currently president of P.E.O. Chapter AM, Albuquerque. Her email is cka13705@aol.com.

EDITOR’S DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed in this guest column are those of Colleen Aycock and do not necessarily reflect those of the www.petedinelli.com blog. She has not been paid compensation to publish the guest column and has given her consent to publish on www.PeteDinelli.com.

COLLEEN AYCOCK GUEST COLUMN

MOTEL CONVERSIONS BAD PUBLIC POLICY TO DEAL WITH HOMELESS CRISIS

BY COLLEEN AYCOCK

The City of Albuquerque is involved in another City boondoggle. It is a Tiny Homes-type public housing project on steroids, with more units and with an impact that could potentially destroy entire business districts across Albuquerque.   The plan is called “Motel Conversions,” and the Mayor Tim Keller Administration’s goal is to buy motels and convert them into public housing projects, directed by Family & Community Services, eventually turning these City-purchased properties over to non-profit entities to run them.

On October 17, 2022, Mayor Keller announced that the city is ready to convert 10 commercial motels into public housing, and that the city plans to train individuals through their programs to perform the construction. The plan is to create “affordable housing” with “access for all.”

https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/city-announces-new-plan-to-tackle-housing-crisis-in-albuquerque/

This may sound like a laudable goal, but like the “Plans” to house the homeless in tents and tiny homes the city calls living spaces without restrooms and kitchens, the plan for Motel Conversions is equally bad. The plan will not create true, meaningful, or complete, permanent housing for already struggling residents. It will only create high-density slums and invite additional crime into the area. The slap in the face to taxpaying citizens is that the City will use the deep pockets of the taxpayers to fund these ill-planned projects.  The City wants to use and reallocate federal HUD grants and one-fifth of the $100-million tax bond money designated for “Affordable Housing” for motel conversions, all monies never intended for substandard housing.

Simply put, staying in a converted one-room, motel room for longer than a week is harmful and constitutes substandard permanent living conditions for anyone, especially for a family with children.  This “permitted design” should not be allowed by the City of Albuquerque or funded by HUD or with public bond money earmarked for “Affordable Housing”.  A converted motel room is NOT what Albuquerque taxpayers thought they were getting when they voted for the $100-million-dollar bond package for Affordable Housing. And a slum is not what HUD intended for its Community Grants.

SURE STAY HOYEL FIRST CITY PURCHASE ON HOTEL CIRCLE

The first of these “Motel Conversions” is planned for the largest business district in City Council District 9 serving SE and NE Albuquerque, along Hotel Circle at Eubank and Lomas, a decision by the City that all businesses in this district say will harm them.

Since last fall, a year ago, the City of Albuquerque and the Real Property Division have been interested in purchasing the Sure Stay Hotel on Hotel Circle SE, a private hotel business directly across the street from the Econolodge and Days Inn hotels. These for-profit hotels are bordered by other for-profit businesses in the largest shopping area in SE and NE Albuquerque near I-40. These businesses include restaurants and big box stores that attract large numbers of clients and tourists to the area. The businesses include Sadies, the Owl Café, and Applebees, Target, Office Depot, Best Buy, the Home Store, PetCo and other businesses critical to the healthy economic welfare of District 9 and the surrounding neighborhoods.

Before the City could purchase the Sure Stay hotel for this residential public housing Project, the City needed to create a zoning amendment in the Integrated Development Ordinance (IDO) which would allow for this type of business conversion for residential use by the City.

Thus, the creation, in July, of the loosely crafted “Motel Conversion” IDO amendment (0-22-10) which the City Council passed, with some opposition, which allows for any commercial structure, not originally built or intended for permanent residential housing, to be converted into structures without full service kitchens with appliances, and, in lieu thereof, allow for microwave and dormitory-style refrigerators.

With the building code and IDO changes in place, the City could legally purchase any commercial building for use of Family & Community Services for permanent public housing projects. But the City had to have the MONEY guaranteed for these purchases and conversions. That money would come from several sources, but primarily HUD and, with City Councilors’ blessing, an already passed tax bond for “Affordable Housing,” monies not designated specifically for Motel Conversions. That detail didn’t matter. The City would reallocate those and other HUD funds for these conversions.

In the Spring 2022, Assistant Family Community Services Director Lisa Huval justified the purchases by saying, “The City Council also this spring approved borrowing $20 million as part of a $100 million gross receipts tax bond package for affordable housing, which Huval, Deputy Director of Housing, said can go toward creating new units or acquiring and rehabilitating property.”  There is over $23 million in city and federal voucher funding available, including $9.8 million extra in ongoing annual funding added to the budget this year,” she stated.

The link to the quoted news source is here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/2537079/renters-seek-city-assistance-amid-soaring-costs.html

If the City Council knew this past spring that they were voting to reallocate these bond funds, the blame can be equally placed on City Council for allowing Family & Community Services to take $20-million from “affordable housing” to create Motel Conversions that would destroy business districts, specifically the business district, built and designed and named “Hotel Circle” exclusively for businesses.

HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT FUNDING

On September  23, 2022, the Department of Family & Community Services published a notice in the “Albuquerque Journal” in its  Government Legals, fine-print, pages that stated the City intended to purchase Sure Stay Hotel by using Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funding of $3,059,662.12 in Community Development Block Grants,  $2,443,724.00 from Public Facilities monies  and $615,938.12 from Foreclosure Prevention for a total property purchase of  $6,119,324.24.  Public Facilities money are intended to be used for such things as fire departments, police stations, community centers. Foreclosure Prevention money is intended to be used to prevent foreclosures—and not to be used as funding with which to buy a property.

On September  29, 2022, six days later, the city  published in the “Albuquerque Journal” a  “Notice of Finding of No Significant Impact and Notice of Intent to Request Release of Funds from HUD”.   The notice stated:

“On or after Oct. 17, 2022 the City of ABQ, Dept. of Family and Community Services will submit a request to the HUD ABQ Field Office for the release of CDBG CARES and HOME American Rescue Plan (HOME_ARP) funding to the Sure Stay Hotel Acquisition and Renovation Project for the permanent housing with supportive services….”

The total HUD funding is estimated at $7,559,662.12.

Over 6 days, from September  23 to September  29, the published request for HUD funds increased by almost  $1.5 million from one document to the next. When the discrepancy was brought to the attention of Community Development Program Manager Monica Montoya, she responded that the original request was for $3,059,662.12 and that it be allocated for the contribution of the Sure Stay Motel acquisition, an original monetary request and location that the public never heard about but the city was already dealing with HUD funds. As the legal notice clearly published, other funds were being reallocated from “Public Facilities” and “Foreclosure Prevention”, grants that are inappropriate for the City’s purchase of a private motel.

With respect to  the discrepancy of funds from one notice to the other, Montoya stated that the released funding includes another HUD source that had already been approved for the purchase by saying “The Request for Release of funds also includes HOME-ARP funding for the rehabilitation of the Sure Stay. … That funding plan has already been accepted by HUD and therefore was not included in the amendment.” These back-room plans to take hotel businesses away from the business sector is a blatant example of the City’s machinations to weaponize federal public money against private citizens and businesses without full disclosure to the public. In the case of the Sure Stay Hotel, the transaction was not, at this point, completed but funds were being diverted to the purchase.

HARM MEASURED IN FUTURE COSTS

The actual consequences to established hotel and other businesses from the City’s plans to allow Safe Outdoor Spaces (SOS) which allows for tent living, also substandard housing,  next to an established hotel business must be considered. The cost of security and social services for these units do not outweigh the cost of lost neighborhood businesses, increased crime, and future long-term drug and mental health consequences for those forced to live, long term, in inhumane conditions. Flush with federal, state, and city money for constructing actual, livable residences, the Keller  Administration can and should design something better than tents, tiny homes and motel conversions for its population. Consider the cost to taxpayers of the appeals and litigation to come.

SAFE OUTDOOR SPACES APPEALS AND LITIGATION PROOF OF POOR PLANNING AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

PICTURE THIS:  A tent lot for the homeless situated behind a prestigious multistoried hotel, the Crown Plaza, that draws conventions to Albuquerque. The contrast is visually stark and economically devastating for the existing businesses and any potential business development for that area of Menaul.

Adopted in July along with the “Motel Conversion” amendment was the “Safe Outdoor Spaces” (SOS) amendment where as many as 40 to 50 individuals could live in tents or in their vehicles on an open space vacant lot. The SOS amendment garnered more public, press, and media attention than the “Motel Conversions” because of the back-and-forth battles between the City Council and Mayor over the SOS amendment. That battle consisted of the City Council passing the SOS amendment originally proposed by the City. Then Councilors changed their minds and introduced and passed a moratorium on the SOS—which the Mayor vetoed. The City Council then voted on the Mayor’s veto, but their votes failed to override his veto. 

Repeal legislation of the SOS amendment has been introduced and the Environmental Planning Commission (EPC) held a hearing on the legislation and voted to recommend total  repeal of SOS land use.

Because the SOS Amendment passed, on July 30, Dawn Legacy Point filed the very first application for a ‘Safe Outdoor Space’ homeless encampment. The Dawn Legacy Point homeless encampment is intended to provide accommodations for upwards of 50 women who are homeless and who are “sex-trafficking victims” in addition to other vulnerable populations. The homeless encampment is to be located on vacant land at 1250 Menaul Blvd, NE which consists of two large parcels of property owned by the City with an assessed value of $4,333,550.

On August 8, the City Planning Department approved the Dawn Legacy Point application for a Safe Outdoor Space homeless campsite at 1250 Menaul, NE. Seven appeals of the Dawn Legacy Point Safe Outdoor Spaces were filed asking the City Planning Department to reverse its decision and deny the Safe Outdoor Space application of Dawn Legacy.

On September 28, 2022, an all-day hearing was convened by a City Land Use Hearing (LUHO) officer to hear the appeals.  All seven appeals were heard separately, but consecutively, at the September 28, 2022 hearing.  As a matter of administrative efficiency and economy, the appeals were consolidated and considered together for disposition.

 All of the appeals sounded the same chord: loss of business income, expensive cost of private security, and threat of the location becoming even more unsafe and ill-suited for business purposes.

The fact of the matter is, that the City’s location of the S.O.S on Menaul violates the City’s own goals “to situate similar businesses together”, (the City’s justification in a ruling in Nob Hill for allowing multiple cannabis stores in close proximity). A commercial lot of tents is not a hotel and is a stark contrast and dissimilar business if you picture that tent lot in the backyard the Crown Plaza Hotel.

On October 10, City Land Use Hearing Officer Steven M. Chavez issued his decision in the appeal of Dawn Legacy Point application.  Hearing Officer Chavez REMANDED the Dawn Legacy Point application back to the city Planning Department for further review after  finding “substantial and meaningful violations of due process” of law to the appellants.

CITY VIOLATES DUE PROCESS RIGHTS OF PROPERTY OWNERS

The most compelling legal fact considered in the SOS debacle at the LUHO Hearing was that the City never notified any surrounding and bordering business that the City intended to put inferior residential living spaces next door to their businesses. The General Manager of the Crown Plaza testified to the LUHO Officer that the hotel had been losing business due to the large number of homeless loiterers and high crime in the area. The Crown Plaza had over $750,000 of repeat convention contracts cancelled, all for reasons that the area had become unsafe. The LUHO officer found that Dawn Legacy Pointe’s SOS application lacked “substantial and meaningful” statutory violations of Due Process.

https://newmexicosun.com/stories/633374263-abq-hearing-officer-remands-dawn-legacy-pointe-sos-application-finding-substantial-and-meaningful-violations-of-due-process

The City’s modus operandi is clear:  The City can do whatever it wants behind closed doors, it can pass an ordinance to fit its secret plans without the public knowing where and what it intends to do with the ordinances; and, as shown with the Dawn Legacy SOS application, the City doesn’t seem to care about violating anyone’s due process.  With the Dawn Legacy application, the City violated the due process rights of adjacent property owners and rushed the approval of the land use to approve it behind closed doors. It is doing the same thing with Motel Conversions, but on a planned larger scale.

VIOLATION OF CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS REPEATING ITSELF WITH HOTEL CONVERSIONS

 The violation of constitutional rights is now repeating with Motel Conversions. Not a single business along Hotel Circle, from Lomas to Eubank has been notified of the City’s year-long plan to buy the Sure Stay Hotel for Family & Community Services to provide permanent public residential housing.

But the real travesty is evident in the City’s fast-hands, and probably illegal, use of tax-payers’ federal tax funds through HUD and other “reallocated” taxpayer monies the City is using for the purchase of these Motel Conversions.

There are other problems with the City’s purchase of the Sure Stay Hotel:

1) No Open Record Public Request for Purchase. Community Development Program Manager Monica Montoya stated that there was no public Request for Purchase (RFP) for the purchase of the hotel.

2) No Due Process. No businesses along Hotel Circle, SE, were notified and still have not been notified in writing or in person of the Sure Stay Hotel purchase by any public or elected official.

3) Hidden Costs for Services. The request to HUD for Release of Funding, published in the newspaper includes “supportive services” which has not been defined. There was no disclosure of  how much money these “services” will cost the taxpayer for the first year or thereafter. According to Monica Montoya, “supportive services” include such things as the delivery of vaccines and food boxes. It is sadly ironic to picture a delivery of a food box to client living a hotel room without a kitchen.

4) Cost of Crime. There is proof that this “Project” will make the business district more dangerous.

MOTEL CONVERSIONS HISTORY OF BEING IMPRACTICAL FOR PERMANENT LIVING

Motel conversions have a history of being impractical for permanent living and very, very dangerous to neighborhoods and businesses in the area. That proof can be found in the conversion of a motel on East Central, now called the Four Hills Studios. This long-term, low-income property accepting housing vouchers has experienced, in this year alone, a murder, assaults with serious bodily injury, drug dealers and drug-related crimes, and extortion of its residents. The police have reported over 400 calls to that location in the first half of this year. While the City doesn’t own this property, citizens are forced to pay the high costs from the consequences of its conversion for low-income residential use in a business district. (That motel conversion is now under new ownership with new managers, under the ADAPT program, a program that replaced the Safe City Strike Force to deal with harmful, derelict properties.)

There are other troubling financial questions regarding these motel sales. Those questions include:

Who are the sales agents? Who stands to gain financially from these sales?

How many reputable businesses will be put out of business when these projects pop up?

Where are the other 9 City-planned Motel Conversions locations?

The City has not been forthcoming with any answers to these questions.

A BACKWARD PROCESS

The city’s purchasing process for affordable housing is ill advised and backwards.  The City should be looking for properties that will promote quality living for residents in residential areas. The City needs to build the City up, not take inferior, cheap, and worn properties to rehab for the unfortunate, concentrating them in properties that are likely to become slums.

The City’s Planning Dept. should be asking the businesses in and around Hotel Circle for their input first. The City should have asked businesses how these public housing projects will affect their businesses and economic well-being.  Not a single business surveyed wanted this Sure Stay Housing Project to go forward. Their answers were a resounding: “It will destroy our business.” “Why is the City putting residential public housing in a business district?” “We are against this.” Like the City’s purchase of a commercial lot for tents in the backyard of a multi-storied hotel, it appears the City of Albuquerque through Family & Community Service is running rough-shod over the business district at Hotel Circle. Maybe the name of its road sign should be changed from “Hotel Circle” to ““No taxpayer Input Desired/Required.”

Why is the City doing this?  The simple answer: because it can, and the City has deep pockets from taxpayer funds with which to tap. 

SUMMARY

In a pre-planned move, for over a year now, the City has been setting in motion a plan to buy the Sure Stay Hotel on Hotel Circle, planning to change the IDO to make this and other purchases possible, planning to use one-fifth of the tax bond package for “inferior housing” (with City Council approval), and then planning to turn these City purchases over to Not-for-profit entities to run them—all plans that failed to notify the public or the businesses imminently affected.

What is happening now is NOT the best way to run a city or a public residential housing program, by buying up commercial properties willy-nilly in business districts, without a plan, anywhere the administration wants, without proper notification to the public, and failing to account for and use of HUD money for its intended purposes.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

If you want to voice your opinion against the City’s purchase of the Sure Stay Hotel or any other motels for conversion into insufficient housing for permanent public “Projects” for low-income, homeless, or any other individuals, please add your name to the petition requested by the surrounding businesses on Hotel Circle.

The petition is located on Judy Young’s website. Judy is a member of Women Taking Back Our Neighborhoods and is running for Bernalillo County Commissioner, Dist. 5 in Albuquerque. She is the only candidate for office that has offered to help these businesses in their desperate cry for help in this matter.

Sign the Petition at: https://youngbernco.com/motel-conversions-petition

You can also request to HUD to STOP using HUD funds by re-allocating funds not meant to be used for purchases that will destroy businesses in existing business districts by emailing:  Lawrence Reyes, Dir.of Albuquerque HUD office:

lawrence.c.reyes@hud.gov.

Respectfully

Colleen Aycock

Founding member of Women Taking Back Our Neighborhoods

 

Democrat City Councilor Issac Benton and Republican Brook Bassan are proposing making changes and updating the city’s Pedestrian Safety Ordinance permitting anyone from certain kinds of activities on city owned medians. The ultimate goal is to restrict panhandling on city owned medians.  If this sounds at all familiar, its because it is.  It was in 2017 that Albuquerque City Councilor Trudy Jones sponsored the original “Pedestrian Safety Ordinance” that was enacted unanimously by the city council.  The original bill banned pedestrians from having exchanges with drivers.

The American Civil Liberties Union  (ACLU) filed  a federal civil rights lawsuit challenging  the city ordinance.  U.S. District Court Judge Robert Brack  in Albuquerque ruled in 2019 that the ordinance violated free speech protections because it was “not narrowly tailored to meet the City’s interest in reducing pedestrian-vehicle conflicts.”  The city appealed the ruling and in 2021 the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2021  upheld Judge Brack’s ruling.

The U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in its ruling  wrote:

“[The city was]  unable to establish that the ordinance does not burden substantially more speech than necessary to further its interest in pedestrian safety … [and] has almost completely failed to even consider alternative measures that restrict or burden the speech at issue less severely than does the ordinance.”

The federal appeals court  noted the city’s  argument on  accident reports failed to support the need for several of the ordinance’s provisions,  ruling the city’s arguments “actually belied any assertion that pedestrian presence near highway ramps or on medians, or pedestrian involvement in physical exchanges with vehicles occupants, gave rise to significant safety concerns.”

ORIGINAL LANGUAGE DECLARED UNCONSTITUTIONAL

The original language of the “Pedestrian Safety Ordinance” that was declared unconstitutional by the federal court  is as follows:

(D)   It is unlawful for any pedestrian to engage in any physical interaction or exchange with the driver or occupants of any vehicle within a travel lane unless reasonably required because of an emergency situation. For purposes of this section, a “physical interaction or exchange” is conduct by which a pedestrian intentionally makes physical contact with a vehicle in a travel lane or with any of its occupants, either directly or with an object.

 (E)   It is unlawful for any occupant of a motor vehicle within any travel lane or intersection to engage in any physical interaction or exchange with a pedestrian unless reasonably required because of an emergency situation. For purposes of this section, a PHYSICAL INTERACTION OR EXCHANGE is conduct by which an occupant of a motor vehicle in a travel lane intentionally makes physical contact with a pedestrian, either directly or with an object.

The complete, unedited ordinance can be found in the POSTSCRIPT following to this blog article.

The new Benton/Bassan bill deletes the egregious, unconstitutional language and the following language is substituted:

“It is unlawful for any person to stand in any travel lane of a street, highway, or controlled access roadway or in any travel lane of the exit of entrance ramps thereto, or to otherwise enter a travel lane of a street, highway, or controlled access roadway or in any travel lane of the exit of entrance ramps thereto, except for the purpose of legally crossing … It is unlawful for any person to access, use, occupy, congregate or assemble on any median that is located on any roadway with a posted speed limit of 30 miles per hour or greater and that does not possess a flat area of at least four feet (4’) in diameter”.

Note that the new  ordinance specifically bars individuals from standing in or entering street and highway travel lanes unless they are “legally crossing.” It also prohibits using or occupying medians on 30 mph or faster roads where there is not a flat surface at least 4 feet wide.

Under the new ordinance, if pedestrians are on a median that doesn’t meet the bill’s requirements, a $100 citation could be issued.  APD and the Albuquerque Community Safety Department (ACS) will  be authorized to give warnings, or  are a person can be criminally charged with a misdemeanor and fined a $100.

The new ordinance delineates  an extensive amount of statistics and cites New Mexico  as being  among the worst in the nation for pedestrian fatalities, with 9 deaths per 100,000 from 2009-2019. It also cited the 2020 death of Rachanda Myers, a mother of three who was hit and killed by a car sitting on a narrow median on Pan American Freeway.

The updated ordinance removes the unconstitutional  provisions of the original ordinance, including the part banning exchanges between drivers and pedestrians, and loosens up where pedestrians can be on sidewalks. Under the new version of the ordinance,  if people are on a sidewalk or median, it has to be at least four feet wide, on a street where the speed limit is under 30 miles per hour, and flat, having no greater than 8% grade.

Ordinance  co-sponsor Republican City  Councilor Brook Bassan  had this to say:

“I absolutely believe that people should be able to express their free speech, but I also think that people driving have a right to be safe when they’re driving to or from different locations and not have to worry if they’re going to hit somebody and kill them. And if people are a little bit more unbalanced, they need to be able to be safe too. … The priority is to make sure people are safer both to make sure people are safer standing on medians or sidewalks or if they’re driving.  … We’re working to have some enforcement that’s fair and that allows for the opportunity for some change to happen.”

Democrat co-sponsor City  Councilor Benton for his part  said he believes the new version can withstand a potential legal challenge because it does not specifically target people who are homeless and it  would also apply to people fundraising or otherwise using medians. Benton said this:

“If they’re doing it on a 2- or 3-foot-wide median in heavy traffic, that’s just not a safe situation.”

MAYOR TIM KELLER REQUESTED THE LEGISLATION

City Councilors Benton and  Bassan are sponsoring the legislation on behalf of the Keller administration. It was in September that Mayor Tim Keller requested that the ordinance be enacted. In a September memo to both, Keller wrote:

“Due to the … large number of pedestrian/vehicle-involved crashes, Albuquerque seeks to address general pedestrian safety concerns, and to prevent further unnecessary deaths and injuries resulting from pedestrian occupation of medians by amending the Traffic Code to disallow occupancy by pedestrians in medians” .

Mayor Tim Keller’s office issued the following statement after new ordinance was introduced:

“[The new ordinance represents]  common-sense regulations  and is responsive to specific Court of Appeals’ concerns. …  Medians are constructed to manage traffic flow, and narrow medians on high-speed roads are simply not safe places for anyone to stand.  We have to protect pedestrians and drivers with common-sense regulations. The City carefully evaluated the Tenth Circuit opinion and sought to address the specific concerns identified by the Court.  Most significantly, the City limited the scope of the new ordinance. The ordinance only prohibits people from standing on dangerous medians that are four feet or narrower.  This change is designed to protect both pedestrians and the traveling public, while also allowing for protected speech.”

The ACLU  for its part said it was reviewing the new ordinance and issued the following statement:

“We are still analyzing the bill and the City’s actions for consistency with the Court’s order and how the city council votes. We are committed to making sure that people in our city do not suffer criminal legal consequences for taking part in life-sustaining activities that are protected by basic constitutional rights. “

The links to quoted news source material are here:

https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/albuquerque-city-councilors-propose-median-safety-ordinance/

https://www.krqe.com/news/albuquerque-metro/albuquerque-councilors-propose-update-to-pedestrian-safety-bill/

https://www.abqjournal.com/2538089/city-trying-again-to-outlaw-activity-on-medians.html

CAMPING ON SIDEWALKS  HAS BEEN ILLEGAL FOR 50 YEARS

One of the most  common complaints are the  homeless camping where they want on city sidewalks. In July when Mayor Tim  Keller announced the closure of Coronado Park, which  had become an a de facto city sanctioned encampment, he  also announced a policy change when it  comes to encampments on sidewalks. Keller had this to say:

“The city has changed its policies with respect to certain areas, we are going to have a much quicker response time with respect to encampments. Those areas are sidewalks. …  It’s an ADA issue. It is too dangerous to camp on a sidewalk for people trying to use the sidewalk.”

The City has adopted a  Criminal Code”, 12-1-1 to 12-1- 99.  There are two specific  ordinances that apply and  that make it illegal to camp on sidewalks that  were enacted 50 years ago.  Those ordinances are:

12-2-3 CRIMINAL TRESPASS.

Criminal trespass consists of unlawfully entering or remaining upon the lands or property of another knowing that any consent to enter or remain has been denied or withdrawn by the person or persons lawfully in possession of the premises or after the request or demand to leave the premises by the authorized representative of the person or persons lawfully in possession of the premises.

(’74 Code, § 12-1-2-3) (Ord. 96-1973; Am. Ord. 78-1978) Penalty, see § 12-1-99

12-2-7 OBSTRUCTING MOVEMENT.

 Obstructing movement consists of:

   (A)   Hindering or molesting persons passing along any street, sidewalk, crosswalk, or other public way; or

   (B)   … .

Violation of either of the ordinances is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not more than $500, or by imprisonment for not more than 90 days, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

(’74 Code, § 12-1-2-7) (Ord. 96-1973; Am. Ord. 43-1988; Am. Ord. 55-1990; Am. Ord. 1-2004; Am. Ord. 21-2004) Penalty, see § 12-1-99

https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/albuquerque/latest/albuquerque_nm/0-0-0-101138#JD_12-2-3

The Albuquerque Police Department issued a statement on the enforcement in a statement they said in part:

“Most encounters police have with people who may be criminal trespassing result in arrests on existing warrants. So, the criminal trespass may not be captured.”

The link to the quoted new source is here:

https://www.koat.com/article/target-7-albuquerque-sidewalk-camping-citations/41537630

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

What was downright laughable  if not embarrassing  was when Mayor Tim Keller said “It’s an ADA issue. It is too dangerous to camp on a sidewalk for people trying to use the sidewalk.”  This comment is what you call a person trying to say something intelligent.   Ostensibly,  Keller is ignorant of the fact that both the city’s “criminal trespass” law and “obstructing movement” law were enacted 50 years ago in 1973 and close to 20 years before the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law on July 26, 1990.  The laws have nothing to do with the with disabilities and everything to do with public safety and making  sure that  public rights of way are used for their intended purpose.

The biggest problem with the original ordinance sponsored by Republican City Councilor Trudy Jones is that it was obviously directed at the homeless or panhandlers and also at drivers stopping to pass items such as food, money or anything a driver wanted  to give as a handout to help make a beggar’s or a homeless person’s life a little less miserable. It came across as downright cruel and lacking any compassion interfering with people simply wanting to help with a handout.

In 2017, the city council was repeatedly warned about the language of the original  ordinance by the ACLU and the City Council simply ignored what it was being told and that the original ordinance was unconstitutional.  What was truly amazing is the poor advice the City Council was likely given in 2017 by the City Attorney’s Office and the fact that the City Attorney office appealed the original ruling.

From review of the new language and with the deletions of the unconstitutional language, the new version of the ordinance has a much better chance of being upheld as constitutional or going unchallenged in federal court. What is very promising is that the ACLU is also analyzing the new ordinance, and if it concurs, the city council should proceed with enactment of the new ordinance.

The homeless have reached crisis proportions with them becoming far more visible and aggressive by illegally camping in parks, on streets, in alleyways and in city open space whenever they want. When it comes to the “homeless crimes” of loitering, panhandling, illegal camping and criminal trespassing, Mayor Keller implemented a “no arrest” policy where arrests are the last resort and citations are to be issued. APD is allowed to make arrests only when circumstances endangering public safety warrant an arrest. This policy is ill-advised.

Being homeless is not a crime. The city has a moral obligation to help the homeless, mentally ill and drug addicted and is doing so with millions spent each year. With that said, homeless squatters who have no interest in city shelters, beds, motel vouchers and who want to live on the streets and camp in city parks, in alleys and trespass as they choose give the city no choice but to make it inconvenient for them to “squat” and force them to move on or be arrested by the Albuquerque Police Department.

The “new and improved” Pedestrian Safety ordinance if enacted by the  city council coupled with the two existing  ordinances  prohibiting camping on sidewalls has the potential of making a real difference. But that will only be the case if APD is cut lose to do its job of enforcement.

______________________

POSTSCRIPT

Following is the original and unedited “Pedestrian Safety Ordinance” sponsored by Republican City Councilor Trudy Jones and  enacted in 2017:

 

• 8-2-7-2 OCCUPYING ROADWAYS, CERTAIN MEDIANS AND ROADSIDE AREAS PROHIBITED; CERTAIN PEDESTRIAN INTERACTIONS WITH VEHICLES PROHIBITED.

(A)   It is unlawful for any person to stand in any travel lane of a street, highway, or controlled access roadway or in any travel lane of the exit or entrance ramps thereto;

(B)   It is unlawful for any person to access, use, occupy, congregate or assemble within six feet of a travel lane of an entrance or exit ramp to Interstate 25, Interstate 40, or to Paseo del Norte at Coors Boulevard NW, Second Street NW, Jefferson Street NW, or Interstate 25, except on a grade separated sidewalk or designated pedestrian way, unless reasonably necessary because of an emergency situation where such area provides the only opportunity for refuge from vehicle traffic or other safety hazard;

(C)   It is unlawful for any person to access, use, occupy, congregate, or assemble within any median not suitable for pedestrian use, unless reasonably necessary during an otherwise lawful street crossing at an intersection or designated pedestrian crossing, or because of an emergency situation where the median provides the only opportunity for refuge from vehicle traffic or other safety hazard. For purposes of this section, a MEDIAN NOT SUITABLE FOR PEDESTRIAN USE is:

(1)   Any portion of a median that is less than six feet in width, and located within a roadway with a posted speed limit of 30 miles per hour or faster or located within 25 feet of an intersection with such a roadway; or

(2)   Is the landscaped area of the median as defined by this Traffic Code; or

(3)   Is otherwise identified by signage as not suitable for pedestrian use by the City Traffic Engineer based on identifiable safety standards, including but not limited to an unsuitable gradient or other objectively unsuitable features.

(D)   It is unlawful for any pedestrian to engage in any physical interaction or exchange with the driver or occupants of any vehicle within a travel lane unless reasonably required because of an emergency situation. For purposes of this section, a “physical interaction or exchange” is conduct by which a pedestrian intentionally makes physical contact with a vehicle in a travel lane or with any of its occupants, either directly or with an object.

(E)   It is unlawful for any occupant of a motor vehicle within any travel lane or intersection to engage in any physical interaction or exchange with a pedestrian unless reasonably required because of an emergency situation. For purposes of this section, a PHYSICAL INTERACTION OR EXCHANGE is conduct by which an occupant of a motor vehicle in a travel lane intentionally makes physical contact with a pedestrian, either directly or with an object.

(F)   Nothing herein shall be construed as preventing maintenance or construction activities within medians or roadside areas by public agencies or agents thereof, entering or exiting a bus or other form of public transit at authorized pick up and drop off locations, or as preventing physical interactions or exchanges between pedestrians and occupants of vehicles where the vehicle is lawfully stopped or pulled over outside of a travel lane, or parked at a location where on-street parking is permitted.

(’74 Code, § 9-5-14.2) (Ord. 65-1974; Am. Ord. 2017-028; Am. Ord. 2019-017)

Click to access O-2019-017.pdf

 

On July 30, Dawn Legacy Point filed the very  first application  for a ‘Safe Outdoor Space’ homeless encampment. The Dawn Legacy Point homeless encampment is intended to provide accommodations for upwards of 50 women who are homeless and who are “sex-trafficking victims” and other vulnerable populations.  The homeless encampment  is  to be located on vacant land at 1250 Menaul Blvd, NE which  consists of two large parcels of property owned by the city with an assess value of $4,333,550.

On August 8, the City Planning Department approved the  Dawn Legacy Point application for a Safe Outdoor Space homeless campsite at 1250 Menaul, NE. Seven appeals of the Dawn Legacy Point Safe Outdoor Spaces were filed asking the City Planning Department to reverse its decision and deny the Safe Outdoor Space application of Dawn Legacy.

The 7 appellants are:

1. Martineztown Santa Barbara Neighborhood Association
2. Menaul Middle School
3. Life Roots
4. Reuele Sun Corporation, a participant in the Menaul Redevelopment Area
5. Crown Plaza Hotel, a participant in the Menaul Redevelopment Area
6. T-Mobil Cell Phone Call Center
7. Greater Albuquerque Hotel and Lodging Association

On September 28, 2022 an all-day hearing was convened by a City Land Use Hearing officer to hear the appeals.  All seven  appeals were heard separately but consecutively  at the  September 28, 2022 hearing.  As a matter  of administrative efficiency and economy, the appeals were  consolidated and considered  together for disposition

 On October 10, City Land Use Hearing Officer Steven M. Chavez issued his decision in the appeal of  Dawn Legacy Point application.   Hearing Officer Chavez REMANDED the Dawn Legacy Point application back to the city Planning Department for further review after  finding “substantial and meaningful violations of due process” of law to the appellants.

NEW MEXICO SUN ARTICLE

On October 13, the on line news agency “New Mexico Sun” published a  report on the remand.  The article  was written by New Mexico Sun staff reporter  Andy Nghiem.  Below is the article followed by a link to the article:

HEADLINE:  “ABQ Hearing Officer remands Dawn Legacy Pointe SOS application finding ‘substantial and meaningful’ violations of due process”.

By Andy Nghiem

“In response to appeals filed by the Santa Barbara Martineztown Neighborhood Association (SBMTNA), the Menaul School, and several local businesses, City of Albuquerque Land Use Hearing Officer Steven Chavez (LUHO) issued an October 10 ruling remanding the Dawn Legacy Pointe “safe outdoor space” (SOS) homeless encampment application back to planning. The officer found that in their rush to approve the SOS, City Staff and the applicant committed “substantial and meaningful” violations of “due process” by failing to provide appropriate notice.

In his ruling, Chavez wrote that, “…the applicants failed to properly send notification of the pending SOS application to all the qualifying abutting property owners within 100-feet of the proposed site (excluding right-of-way). Because the defect is so substantial and meaningful involving due process, a remand is fundamentally the shortest path to a final resolution of these appeals.”

Chavez also added that “Planning Staff disregarded the manner of notice required which is specifically applicable to all applications requiring “administrative decisions” in the IDO,” “The practical impact … was that a meaningful number of property owners who otherwise would be entitled to individualized notice of the application were not sent notice,” and, “Staff and the applicant erred because they disregarded an otherwise applicable process for a seemingly irreconcilable process that resulted in inadequate notice. Moreover, Staff’s interpretation of the IDO contravenes New Mexico law.” “Staff and the applicant erred and as stated above, a remand is the only cure to this due process violation.”

The SBMTNA’s appeal against Dawn Legacy Pointe’s ‘Safe Outdoor Space’ (SOS) application focused on several issues, not the least of which highlight the lack of transparency and due process extended to the public and the impacted communities. The appeal contended that by failing to follow established policies required for the approval of applications relating to ‘special’ or ‘conditional’ use zoning the City and the applicant ultimately acted in bad faith by “unilaterally” reviewing and approving Dawn Legacy Pointe’s application” behind closed doors” without notice to the public and without the required opportunity for public input. The appeal also claimed the City extended “preferential treatment” and gave “insider information” to Brad Day and Dawn Legacy Pointe while not affording the same to other SOS applicants.

The New Mexico Sun previously reported that days after the city of Albuquerque began accepting applications for safe outdoor spaces, the newly formed Dawn Legacy Pointe proposed an encampment at 1250 Menaul NE, a parcel just west of Interstate 25 within the Martineztown neighborhood. Following the news of the proposed encampment, the SBMTNA sent a letter to Family and Community Services Director Carol Pierce expressing outrage as the proposal was not discussed with them.

“The Santa Barbara Martineztown Neighborhood Association (SBMTNA) was informed that you attended a westside neighborhood meeting and informed them about providing homeless outdoor spaces in or near their area and the Martineztown Santa Barbara boundaries at 1250 Menaul NE,” the letter read. “This location is at the corner of Menaul NE and the Frontage Road. This news was disturbing because your office has never approached us to discuss this proposal.”

Albuquerque commercial real estate developer, Brad Day, has taken a special interest in pushing the ‘save outdoor space’ homeless encampment scheme for months. Despite not being listed on any of the corporate documents of Dawn Legacy Pointe or Street Safe New Mexico (the non-profit listed as fiscally sponsoring DLP), Day’s name appears several times on the 1250 Menaul ‘safe outdoor space’ application.

According to the City Planning Department’s instructions for a ‘special’ or ‘conditional’ use (like SOS) as well as other SOS applications received, applicants are required to notify neighborhood stakeholders of their application to allow for public notice and hearings. However, Lopez and the members of the SBMTNA never received any notification from Dawn Legacy Pointe or Safe Streets New Mexico regarding their pending application to place a homeless encampment in their neighborhood.

New Mexico Sun previously reported that following an Aug. 11 meeting between local Santa Barbra Martineztown leaders and city officials which included commercial real estate developer and ‘safe outdoor space’ advocate Brad Day, where Day and officials informed the group that the Dawn Legacy Pointe encampment application had already been approved, SBMTNA President Loretta Naranjo Lopez told the New Mexico Sun that it “seems like the city has known what they were going to do here for a while.” 

“The city also knows the impact of homeless encampments next to neighborhoods and to not involve us from the beginning is incredibly discouraging,” Lopez continued. “Failing to have us at the table, especially when they know how dangerous these encampments are, shows a complete lack of regard for the welfare and safety of our community. They can call it ‘safe’ all they want, but we’re not safe and experience has shown us that.”

Because the violations of notice and due process were so “substantial and meaningful” the LUHO did not make any rulings beyond those focused on the failure to follow appropriate notice processes – leaving the door open for those issues to be considered in future hearings should the application proceed following its remand. Saying in the ruling that, “[b]ecause a remand is appropriate, proposed findings regarding the other appealable issues are not deliberated here.”

The link to the full article is here:

https://newmexicosun.com/stories/633374263-abq-hearing-officer-remands-dawn-legacy-pointe-sos-application-finding-substantial-and-meaningful-violations-of-due-process

SUMMARY OF ISSUES

The hearing officers remand decision is 16 pages long and highly technical in nature containing and citing provisions of the Integrated Development Ordinance under which the Dawn Legacy Point application was approved by the City Planning department. The hearing officer pointed out that all the appeal arguments were substantially similar and had to do with an administrative  decision from City Planning Staff for a proposed temporary Safe Outdoor Space (SOS) use  application submitted by Dawn Legacy Pointe.

The only issue addressed in the remand order disposition was the issue presented  regarding the lack of notices to abutting property owners.  Notwithstanding, the  hearing officer’s  “fact findings” supporting his decision to  remand and his summary of issues argued by the appellants merit review.

FACTS SUPPORTING REMAND

Land Use Hearing Officer Chavez made the following “findings of fact”:

“The record and the disposition of remand is supported by the following facts in the record:

 1.  In the most recent amendment of the IDO, effective July 28, 2022, the SOS use became a lawful temporary use which also included regulatory permitting provisions for their  approval in the IDO

 2.  Dawn Legacy Pointe is a new incorporated non-profit entity, incorporated to provide safe outdoor space services to homeless persons in the City of Albuquerque.

 3.  Even though Planning Staff testified that an “application” was submitted by Dawn 31 Legacy Pointe to the City Planning Department on July 30, 2022, there is not an application in the record from Dawn Legacy Pointe or from their representative(s) for a SOS temporary use at any location.

 4.  To satisfy the requirement of sending notice of the application to abutting property owners under the IDO, in the record there are two “Property Owner Notice Forms” for the proposed temporary use, notifying the Sunset Memorial Park landowner to the West of the proposed SOS use, and notifying the City of Albuquerque as the lot owner of an unidentified lot.

 5.The record also includes three AGIS City Zoning maps depicting the proposed lot

 6.  Presumably to support an application, there are documents in the record which were submitted by the applicants, including a site plan and other relevant exhibits, but there is not an application in the record. The only indication demonstrating that the City Planning Staff approved the “application” is exhibited in a computer file print-out sheet. The print-out sheet  indicates a review date of August 10, 2022, and a review status of “approved.”

 7.  The record shows that the following documents were submitted to the Planning Department by Dawn Legacy Pointe:

A.  A single page proposed site plan for the .79.-acre proposed SOS site

B. A two-page document labeled “Safe Outdoor Spaces Operation/Security 49 Plan.”

C.  A one-page document labeled “Safe Outdoor Space Registration Form.”

D.  A one-page document labeled “Intake Report Tracking” apparently copied 53 from the Mesilla Valley, Community of Hope—a non-profit entity designed  to provide a wide array of homeless services in the Las Cruces area.

E.  A four-page document apparently copied from Camp Hope labeled “Camp 56 Hope Agreements” with an attached waiver of liability form for homeless.

F.  A single-page letter dated July 31, 2022, from Mathew Whelan, the City  Director of the Solid Waste Management Department, advising Dawn  Legacy Pointe that pending approval of the temporary use application, the  City granted permission for use of one-acre of the site at 1250 Menaul Boulevard NE for 6-months, presumably for the proposed SOS use.

8. The proposed site is zoned NR-LM (Non-residential, light-manufacturing) under the IDO.

 9. The proposed site is owned by the City of Albuquerque. Apparently, the City intends to enter into a lease and a solid waste management agreement with Dawn Legacy 67 Pointe soon.

 10.  The first appeal … was filed by the Santa Barbara Martineztown  Neighborhood Association (SBMNA) on August 12, 2022. The next three appeals …  filed by 9. Crown Plaza Albuquerque, the Greater Albuquerque Hotel  and Lodging Association, and Beth Brownell and Scott Cunningham, respectively, were filed  with the City on August 19, 2022. Two more appeals …  were filed on  August 23, 2022, by LifeRoots, Inc. and by Menaul School, respectively. The last appeal … was filed on August 25, 2022, by Robert D. Reule.  All the appeals are timely filed.”

SUMMARY OF ISSUES ARGUED BY THE APPELLANTS

Land Use Hearing Officer Chavez summarized the appellants arguments as follows:

 “1. Appellants contend that City Staff reviewed the Dawn Legacy Pointe application in an abnormal, expedited manner and, as a result, failed to scrutinize the application; gave preferential treatment to the applicants; and failed to properly notify all the abutting  property owners and the SBMNA of the application and its review by City Staff. 

 2. The appellants contend that the operating and security plans approved by City Staff for the SOS use are inadequate; that the applicants have insufficient resources to operate a SOS temporary use; and that these deficiencies will result in the use becoming a public nuisance and/or it will adversely impact/affect the SBMNA membership and their neighborhoods, the business uses, and the Menaul School on Menaul Boulevard near  the site.”

 REMAND INSTRUCTION

Land Use Hearing Officer Chavez issued the following remand instructions:

“To correct the due process violation regarding lack of notice, Planning Staff and the applicants must assure that individual notice is sent to:

All owners, as listed in the records of the Bernalillo County Assessor, of property located partially or completely within 100 feet  in any direction of the subject property. Where the edge of that 100-foot buffer area falls within any public right-of-way, adjacent properties shall be included.

Before any administrative decision can be made on Dawn Legacy Pointe’s application, this is the minimal notice required [under the IDO] …   The applicant [Dawn Legacy]  must also show proof of sending the notices.  

Anyone who satisfies the standing criteria of the IDO for appeals can appeal the subsequent administrative decision within the time specified in the IDO for such appeals. 

Specifically, for the appeal issues that were not considered herein, an appellant must file a new appeal within the time required after the remand runs its course, but after Staff have made a  subsequent administrative decision on the application.”

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

It is very disappointing, but not at all surprising, that the Land Use Hearing Officer remanded the cases back to the Planning Department and ordered that it give proper notice to all  the surrounding property owners.  It was a course of least resistance to play it safe with the Keller Administration which is aggressively pushing  the SOS to be approved.

The hearing officer should have granted all 7 appeals and denied the SOS application and set  aside the Planning Department’s award of the SOS  which would have forced Dawn Legacy to either accept the denial of the applications or to appeal directly to the City Council.  It’s likely the City Planning will now just find a way to grant the application and the appellants will again be forced to appeal to a hearing officer and no matter the outcome of that appeal, the 7 appellants or Dawn Legacy,  will appeal a  second decision of the hearing officer to the City Council.  It is the City Council  who has the ultimate and final say on all land use issues and this entire mess of the Dawn Legacy application will eventually have to be decided by the City Council.

The downside is that Dawn Legacy will no doubt try to correct the defects in its original application giving it a second bite at the apple unless of course it decides to withdraw the application.  The upside of the remand is that Dawn Legacy’s plans were  to  open the encampment in October.   Now Dawn Legacy must  place it on hold until they and the city  get their act together, which is still a big if given the sure incompetence exhibited with the first application.

Mayor Tim Keller and his administration should be absolutely ashamed about what occurred with application and its treatment of surrounding property owners trampling on their rights and who were forced to appeal to protect their rights.  There is no getting around it. What the Planning Department did in rushing the application process simply did not pass the smell test. What also did not pass the smell test is when the city gave Dawn Legacy preferential treatment and identifying city property for them to use.

Even if Dawn Legacy manages to correct it application, what will still remain is that the Safe Outdoor Space Use will have an adverse impact on the area and will result in the SOS property becoming a public nuisance.  It  will also adversely impact  the South Broadway Martinez town Neighborhood Association and its membership the businesses in the area, and the Menaul School.

The Dawn Legacy Point homeless encampment is intended to provide accommodations for upwards of 50 women who are homeless and who are “sex-trafficking victims”.   What is being created at 1205 Menaul, NE is a location for victims to become victims once again. There is no common sense to it at all  and it is indeed just plain crazy.  Mayor Tim Keller holds himself out as a progressive and has made housing of the homeless a top priority, yet ostensibly he has no problem with a Safe Outdoor Space to be use for victims of sex-trafficking. Shame on Tim Keller.

The actual location is troubling and has the potential of becoming a magnet for crime, prostitution or illicit drug trade. It’s located near a truck stop known amongst law enforcement for prostitution and illicit drug activity.  It’s directly across the street from a major call center, a motel suite and is walking distance of Menaul Boarding School and apartments. Occupants of the ‘Safe Outdoor Space’ will not confined and would be free to go and come as they pleased and could easily wind up uninvited wherever they want to go. This includes the truck stop and disrupting the peaceful use and enjoyment at nearby locations or engaging in illicit activity.

Another upside to the hearing officer remanding the case is that Dawn Legacy could simply withdraw the application for the safe outdoor space, which would be the right thing to do and it is a real possibility.

Confidential sources are saying that Dawn Legacy have been offered the use of a building to house the proposed victims of sex trafficking. Woman who are victims of sex trafficking need permanent housing that is a safe place to live and be provided with far more stable housing than a tent in an open space lot area owned by the city.  Forcing victims of sex trafficking to live in tents is nothing more than victimizing them again.

NEWS UPDATE

On October 20, it was reported that Dawn Legacy has added  18 more property owners to the list of those who must be given notice of its application and that the organization sent the letters out on Tuesday, October 18.  Brad Day, a volunteer consultant for Dawn Legacy Pointe, said that once the application is approved again, the organization remains ready to “very quickly” launch the safe outdoor space once it gets the go-ahead.  Day said this:

“We’re all set – we’ve got our insurance, we’ve got the fencing contractor lined up, we’ve got the tents and all the other materials that we need.  We’re ready to go.”

Santa Barbara Martineztown Neighborhood Association President Loretta Naranjo Lopez said the association maintains that any city approval would be “detrimental and discriminatory” to the area and said this:

“We don’t want them there, period!  We’re going to fight it all the way. We’re going to do everything possible to make sure they don’t stay there.”

The link to the quoted news source is here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/2541779/ruling-neighbors-not-properly-notified-of-safe-outdoor-space-ex-con.html

POSTSCRIPT

For those who may be unfamiliar, a review of the land use appeal process is in order.

A review of an appeal of a planning department land use decision,  such is the Dawn Legacy Point Application for a  Safe Out Door Spaces,  is  called  a “whole record review”  to determine whether the administrative  decision approving the application was fraudulent, arbitrary, or capricious; or whether the  decision is not supported by the evidence in the record; or if in approving the proposed use  there was error in applying the requirements of the Integrated Development Ordinance (IDO), a plan, policy, or regulation.  At the appeal level of review, the administrative decision and record must be supported by substantial evidence to be upheld.

The Land Use Hearing Officer (LUHO)  may propose to the City Council  that the Council affirm, reverse, or otherwise modify the lower decision to bring it into compliance with the standards and criteria of this IDO. The City Council also delegated  authority to the LUHO to remand appeals independently and directly for reconsideration or for  further review if a remand is necessary to clarify or supplement the record or if a remand will  expeditiously dispose of the matter.

In administrative appeals, the appellants must first demonstrate that they each have  “standing”  to pursue the appeals.  Standing is a jurisdictional, fact-based question under the IDO that must be determined before the merits of  any appeal is resolved.  Standing limits participation in appeals because if an appellant cannot sufficiently demonstrate standing, the LUHO is obligated to recommend a disposition that the appeal be denied.  Under the IDO, an appellant must have a sufficient connection as an aggrieved party to have standing.

For purposes of the Dawn Legacy appeals, there were two alternative means for the appellant to demonstrate that they had standing to proceed with their appeals under the IDO:

First:   An appellant had to demonstrate that they are property owners within 100-feet of the proposed SOS site, or that they are representatives of neighborhood associations whose boundaries include the proposed  site or whose boundaries are within 100-feet of the site .  This 100-foot proximity requirement expressly applies to temporary uses in the IDO … .

Second:  An alternative pathway for standing  was to  demonstrating that the “property rights or other legal rights” of the appellant had  “been  specially and adversely affected by the decision” of the Planning Department in granting the application .

 

Below is my guest column published by the Albuquerque Journal on Octobern18:

HEADLINE: Safe outdoor spaces not the answer to homeless crisis

BY PETE DINELLI / FORMER ALBUQUERQUE CITY COUNCILOR AND CHIEF PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICER

PUBLISHED: TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18TH, 2022 AT 12:02AM

For five years, Mayor Tim Keller has made the city’s homeless crisis a major priority and now proclaims an “all-the-above approach.” It’s an approach that is costing millions and it is failing. Keller has done the following:

• Over two years, budgeted $33,854,536 for homeless emergency shelters, support, mental health and substance abuse programs and $60,790,321 for affordable housing programs for the low-income, near homeless.
• Established two 24/7 homeless shelters, including purchasing the Gibson Medical Center for $15 million to convert it into a homeless shelter.
• Established a “no arrest” policy for violations of the city’s camping, trespassing and vagrancy laws with an emphasis on citations.
• For five years, allowed Coronado Park to become a “de facto” city-sanctioned homeless encampment, which he was forced to close down because of drugs and violent crimes.
• Advocated and funded city-sanctioned safe outdoor space (SOS) homeless tent encampments. The Environmental Planning Commission is recommending the City Council repeal this land use.

SOS encampments are not just an issue of “not in my back yard,” but one of legitimate anger and mistrust by the public against city elected officials and department employees who have mishandled the city’s homeless crisis and who are determined to allow SOS despite strong opposition. SOS tent encampments will destroy neighborhoods and make the city a magnet for the homeless. The general public has legitimate concerns that SOS homeless tent encampments will become crime-infested nuisances; such was the case with Coronado Park. The homeless crisis will not be solved by the city but must be managed with permanent housing assistance and service programs, not nuisance tent encampments.

The 2022 “Point In Time” homeless survey reported the number of homeless in the city is 1,311 with 940 in emergency shelters, 197 unsheltered and 174 in transitional housing. The survey found there are 256 fewer homeless in 2022 than in 2021. During the last 12 years, PIT yearly surveys have counted 1,300 to 2,000 homeless a year. The PIT survey statistics have never supported city or charitable provider claims the city has upwards of 5,000 homeless. When PIT survey results are released, the city and providers quickly dismiss them as an “undercount,” likely because fewer homeless means less funding for the Family Community Services Department.

The homeless have reached crisis proportions with them becoming far more visible and aggressive by illegally camping in parks, on streets, in alleyways and in city open space whenever they want. When it comes to the “homeless crimes” of loitering, panhandling, illegal camping and criminal trespassing, Mayor Keller implemented a “no arrest” policy where arrests are the last resort and citations are to be issued. APD is allowed to make arrests only when circumstances endangering public safety warrant an arrest. This policy is ill-advised.

Being homeless is not a crime. The city has a moral obligation to help the homeless, mentally ill and drug addicted and is doing so with millions spent each year. Homeless squatters who have no interest in city shelters, beds, motel vouchers and who want to live on the streets and camp in city parks, in alleys and trespass as they choose give the city no choice but to make it inconvenient for them to “squat” and force them to move on or be arrested by the Albuquerque Police Department.

https://www.abqjournal.com/2541179/safe-outdoor-spaces-not-the-answer-to-homeless-crisis.html

On October 7, APD Chief Harold Medina  announced at a news conference new incentive pay  bonuses for   police officers who have been on the force 19 years or more,  and who are eligible for retirement. They  will  be paid as  much as $18,000 more per year, or $1,500 more a month.   In addition, the department will pick up 100% of the officers’ medical benefits.

The additional $18,000 more a year in incentive pay for 19  year  veterans will be paid in addition to the $16,380 annual longevity pay already being paid to police officers with 18 years or more of police service. According to APD Chief Medina  the incentive pay is  necessary to stop the number of officers resigning or retiring which cannot be offset by the number of new recruits entering the department.

APD  has  also extended existing hiring bonuses for incoming police officers through January 6, 2023.  Those include $10,000 extra for police cadets, $15,000 for lateral officers, and $1,500 for police service aides.   City employees can also be paid a bonus  if they recruit new officers. The city is paying a “finders fee” of $2,500 to people who bring a police cadet on board, $2,500 for those who find a successful lateral hire, and $1,000 for employees who help bring on a public service aide.

It was on February 4 that that the Mayor Tim Keller administration announced that it has negotiated a new union contract with the Albuquerque police union that raised APD sworn officer pay after one year of probation to over $68,000 per year.   The new 2-year contract raised police pay across all ranks by 8% and increased “longevity pay” by 5%.  Under the new police contract announced in February, APD’s wages are well above cities and law enforcement agencies of comparable size including Tucson, Arizona at $54,517, and El Paso, Texas at $47,011. The new APD contract keeps APD starting wages slightly higher than the New Mexico State Police.

RATIONAL GIVEN FOR ADDTIONAL INCENTIVE PAY

According to APD Chief Medina the incentive pay is necessary to stop the number of officers resigning or retiring which cannot be offset by the number of new recruits entering the department.  Under the state’s Public Employees Retirement Association (PERA), the retirement program for law enforcement is one of the best in the country.   Police officers can retire after 20 years earning as much as 75% of their average high 3 wage years pay and with 25 years, 90%.   APD is having a very difficult time keeping police officers past 20 years of service, with most just retiring and starting new careers or going to work for another law enforcement agency. The goal of the latest incentive is  to keep employing the more experienced APD officers.

APD also has extended existing hiring bonuses for incoming police officers through January 6, 2023. Those include $10,000 extra for police cadets, $15,000 for lateral officers, and $1,500 for police service aides. City employees can also earn extra money if they recruit new officers. The city is paying a “finder’s fee” of $2,500 to people who bring a police cadet on board.  $2,500 is also paid to those who find a successful lateral hire, and $1,000 for employees who help bring on a public service aide.

According to APD officials, the department has seen fewer resignations and fewer terminations in 2022.  Last year 97 officers retired from the department. Through September 2022, 45 APD officers have resigned in 2022 compared with 58 in 2021. There have been 44 retirements through Oct. 3, 2022, compared with 91 in 2021. With respect to terminations, APD has fired 5 people this year, as opposed to 8 in 2021.

When Mayor Tim Keller first ran for office in 2017, he campaigned on the promise that he would increase the number of APD sworn officers from the then 850 to 1,200.  During the last 5 years Keller has been in office, the number of sworn officers has never exceeded 1,000 and has now dropped to the current 857.

During the October 6, 2022 press conference, Medina said the goal of 1,200 sworn police remains the same but “given the current environment” of recruitment, the focus now is providing comprehensive services with the current roster of 857 officers, as well as boosting the number of people enrolled in the Public Service Aide program and the number of professional staff who support the officers in the field.

APD Chief Harold Medina had this to say about the reasons for the new incentive pay:

“I know when the Mayor took office, we talked about our goal is 1,200 officers. We still would love to get to 1,200 officers, but I’m here today to say that it’s going to be very difficult. … We’re going to do our very best to get to 1,200 officers, and that is our goal, but the reality of it is, in this environment, we may not. And we’re going to take ownership if we don’t, but we’re not just going to talk about we can’t do this, we’re talking about how we’re going to get the job done still. …

We know that officers have a value beyond their 20 years [and] they want to work  … We’re trying to find ways to incentivize [them to continue working.]  … We’ve had members here with our recruiting team that said [the new benefits] made a different for them, and they’ve decided to stay on the department past 20 years because they see the financial benefit. … It seemed to make a difference the first month, and at the end of the year, we’ll be gauging, we’ll be releasing to the community whether we saw a reduction.”

APD is giving officers who have resign a window of 90 days in which they can ask to be reinstated to their original positions.

INCREASE IN RECRUITING SEEN

Chief Medina said during the October 8 news conference that APD has seen an increase in recruiting since it announced it increased its compliance with the court-mandated settlement agreement with the Department of Justice.  Medina said he worked with the DOJ to change policies and processes so as to see a reduction of discipline handed out to officers.

Medina said this:

“You know, departments under a consent decree are not easy places to work for, and I personally try to recruit laterals from surrounding agencies on a consistent basis. … The No. 1 thing that deters them is the fear of our settlement agreement, and we have been working to reduce those fears. …Bottom of FormWe remain committed to reform and trying to find the most sustainable way to move forward and fight crime at the same time.”

WHERE THE MONEY IS COMING FROM

The APD announced $18,000 to be paid to 19-year veterans on the force comes as the state pours millions of dollars into a law enforcement recruitment fund, of which some of that funding is going to APD.  In early September, New Mexico announced it would award $8.75 million to the Albuquerque Police Department for recruitment efforts. According to the Governor’s Office, the money was expected to fund upwards 67 new officers at APD.  Money for the program comes from a bill passed by New Mexico lawmakers during the 2022 regular session. Earlier the Governor’s Office said roughly $8.5 million remains available in the state fund. Law enforcement agencies who want the money need to apply.

It was on September 9 Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham announced how much money each participating law enforcement agency would receive to boost their staff. The Albuquerque and Las Cruces Police Departments received the largest share of the funds. Those departments each got $8.75 million, enough for about 67 new officers per department.  Lujan Grisham had this to say:

Links to quoted news sources are here:

https://www.krqe.com/news/crime/albuquerque-police-to-unveil-new-plan-to-keep-police-officers-on-the-job/

https://www.abqjournal.com/2538540/apd-retention-plan-offers-18000-a-year-incentive.html

APD BUDGET AND STAFFING

The Albuquerque Police Department (APD) is the largest city budget out of 27 departments. The fiscal year 2023 approved General Fund budget is $255.4 million, which represents an increase of 14.7% or $32.8 million above the fiscal year 2022 level. The approved General Fund civilian count is 665 and the sworn police count is 1,100 for a total of 1,765 full-time positions.

APD’s general fund budget of $255.4 provides funding for 1,100 full time sworn police officers, with the department fully funded for 1,100 sworn police for the past 3 years. However, as of October 7, there are  857 sworn officers in APD. The APD budget provides funding for 1,100 in order to accommodate growth. During APD’s budget review hearing, APD Chief Medina acknowledged that the department will likely not meet that staffing level and the personnel funds will help cover other operating costs.

The APD’s budget was increased to accommodate for an immediate 8% in police pay and another 5% in police pay to begin in July because of the new police union contract. The APD budget provides for a net total increase of $1.2 million in overtime pay to accommodate the police union contract hourly rate increase that went into effect on January 1, 2022.

During the October 7, 2022 news conference, it was reported that APD has 857 sworn officers.  This is down from the 917 sworn police number reported on December 6, 2021 to the Federal Court overseeing the consent decree.

As of October 2022, APD has 514 civilian professional staff, 40 public safety aides, 73   911 operators, 23 dispatchers, 41 retired officers that have returned to the department with more than 50 retired officers on contract work for the department.  The latest APD cadet class has 26 people in training to become police officers. The upcoming next cadet class is likely to see between 50 to 60 people.

CHIEF HIGH COMMAND TRIPLES IN 4 YEARS UNDER KELLER

During the last 4 years, the APD high command that works directly out of the Chief’s Office went from 3 to 10 full time sworn staff. Those positions are Chief, Superintendent Of Police Reform, Deputy Superintendent of Police Reform, 6 Deputy Chiefs, 1 Chief of Staff. Although APD abolished the ranking of Major that existed 4 years ago, which there were only 4, it has created the new position of “Deputy Commanders” which there are 16. The 16 “Deputy Commander” positions create a whole new level of bureaucracy and management between Commanders and Lieutenants that is highly questionable as to duties and responsibilities other than “assisting” commanders, perhaps as the commander’s drivers and escorts around town.

The hourly pay rate for APD Lieutenants is $45.36 an hour starting July 1, 2022 or $94,348.60.  Commanders and Deputy Commanders are at will employees paid upwards of $98,000 a year in base salary and with overtime they can easily earn well over $100,000 a year and as much as $120,000 as evidenced by those listed in the top 250 wage earners for the city.

Eight of 10 APD Chief executive command staff are listed in the top 250 city wage earners.  At least 6 of those in the executive command staff have at least 20 years or more service with APD.  8 of the positions are considered “at will employees” and serve at the pleasure of Mayor Keller and are not paid overtime. All 8 are reported to have a received a pay increase upwards of 8% beginning January 1, 2022.

Following are the 8 with pay listed for the full 2021 calendar year:

Medina, Harold, Police Chief Of Police, $177,562.68
Smathers, Michael Jay, 1st Deputy Chief, $149,881.56
Garcia, Eric, 2nd Deputy Chief, $147,444.20
Barker, Cecily, Deputy Chief, $147,201.70
Griego, Jon J , Deputy Chief $144,228.47
Brown, Joshua Deputy Chief, $134,608.38
Lowe, Cori Deputy Chief, $128,409.85
Stanley, Sylvester, Superintendent of Police Reform/DCAO , $123,219.28 (8 months with city and retired and the end of 2021)

 APD RETIREMENT PLANS UNDER PERA

APD has one of the most lucrative retirements programs in the country under the Public Employee Retirement Association (PERA) plan for municipal police where both city and employee pay into the retirement program. Yearly retirement pay is determined with a formula of age, years of service, and averaging the salaries high 3 years. A percentage of yearly pay is given for each year of service with an age requirement to collect the pension.   A sworn police officer with 20 years of service can retire at any age and be paid  75% of their average “high 3 years” of pay.  A sworn police officer with 25 years of service can retire  at any age and be paid  95% of their average “high 3 years of pay.” 

https://www.nmpera.org/for-members/retirement-eligibility/

 NEW POLICE  UNION CONTRACT INCENTIVE PAY REVISTED

 On February 4, it was reported that that the  Mayor Tim Keller’s administration negotiated a new union contract with the Albuquerque police union that raised starting APD sworn officer pay to over $68,000 per year.  The new 2-year contract raised police pay by 8% and  increased “longevity pay” by 5%.  The new contract also  created  a whole new category of “incentive pay”.

https://www.abqjournal.com/2467440/city-reaches-new-deal-with-police-union.html

Under the new contract, APD’s starting wage is well above cities and law enforcement agencies of comparable size including Tucson, Arizona, $54,517, and El Paso, Texas, $47,011. The new APD contract keeps APD starting wages slightly higher than the New Mexico State Police. The 48-page APOA police “Collective Bargaining Agreement” (CBA) is for 1 year and 6 months period. It is effective January 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023.

The new CBA can be downloaded as a PDF file at this link:

https://www.cabq.gov/humanresources/documents/apoa-jul-9-2016.pdf/view

Under the new contract terms, longevity pay increases by 5% starting on July 1, the beginning of the new fiscal year starting at $2,730 per year with those who have 5 years of service and with incremental service years up to 17 years or more who will be paid $16,380.

NEW HOURLY WAGE RATES

First year probationary officers are not covered by the union contract in that they are not union. Starting pay for an APD police officer graduating from the academy and for the officers first year of probation remains the same. They are paid $21.27 an hour for a 40-work week, 52 weeks a year or $44,241.60 yearly.

The cost of training each APD cadet is upwards of $60,000. As it stands, there is no minimum commitment of years for a cadet to work for the city after graduation, meaning they could move on to another law enforcement agency their first year of employment with the city if they want.

“Rank and File” police officers are generally recognized as sworn police officers under the rank of sergeant. Under the union contract sergeant and lieutenants are allowed to join the police union. “RANK AND FILE” HOURLY PAY.

The normal workweek under the contract is defined as 40 hours comprised of either 5 eight hour or 4 ten-hour days. (Page 19 of contract)

Page 6 of the new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) outlines the new hourly wages negotiated for both rank-and-file officers and sergeants and lieutenants.

CLASSIFICATIONS

Under the union contract, the classification of Police Officer 1C is an officer in the bargaining unit who has completed probation up through 4 years of service as an APD Sworn Officer.

The classification of Senior Police Officer 1C is an officer in the bargaining unit with 5 through 14 years of service as an APD Sworn Officer.

The classification of Master Police Officer 1C is an officer in the bargaining unit with 15 or more years of service as an APD Sworn Officer.

The definition of serve and service is “actual time worked”.

2 TO 4 YEAR SERVICE PAY WENT  FROM $60,320 TO $68,411.20 A YEAR

Hourly pay for a Police Officer 1/C (first class) after completing one year of probation and then up through 4 years with the department under the new contract went from $29 and hour or $60,320 yearly to to $32.89 and hour or $68,411.20 a year starting July 1, 2022 until the expiration of the union contract on June 30, 2023.

5 To 14 YEAR SERVICE PAY WENT  FROM $62,400 TO $70,761 A YEAR

Hourly pay for a Senior Police Officer 1/c (first class) with 5 to 14 years of service goes under the new contract went  from $30 an hour or $62,400 a year  to $34.02 an hour or $70,761.60 a year starting July 1, 2022 until the expiration of the union contract on June 30, 2023.

15 OR MORE YEARS SERVICE PAY WENT  FROM $65,520 TO $74, 297 A YEAR

Hourly pay for a Master Police Officer 1/c (first class) with 15 years and above of service went from $31.50 an hour or $65,520 a year to $35.72 an hour or $74,297 a year starting July 1, 2022  until the expiration of the union contract on June 30, 2023.

SARGEANT PAY WENT  FROM $72,800 TO $82,533 A YEAR

Hourly pay for APD Sergeants under the new contract went from $35 an hour or $72,800 a year to $39.69 an hour or $82,555.20 a year starting July 1, 2022 until the expiration of the union contract on June 30, 2023.

LIEUTENANT PAY WENT  FROM $83,200 TO $94,348 A YEAR

Hourly pay for Lieutenants under the new contract went from $40 an hour or $83,200 a year to $45.36 an hour starting July 1, 2022, $94,348.60 a year until the expiration of the contract on June 30, 2023.

LONGEVITY PAY INCREASES

APD sworn police officers are paid “longevity pay” in addition to their yearly pay. On page 9 of the new police union contract, longevity “years” is defined as the completed years of service identified by the City and documented by an officer that an officer has served as a sworn public safety officer in any United States jurisdiction in good standing, excluding military police, and for time with APD shall be complete year(s) from the date an officer achieves P2C status or if a higher rank as a lateral. Special circumstances under the contract does create exceptions to this rule. The definition of serve and service is “actual time worked”.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Under the union contract, lateral transfers from other departments are given credit for their years of service to the other department and are paid the longevity pay as if they had worked for APD. APD also pays lateral transfers “sign on” bonuses of $15,000 in an effort to attract experienced police officers.

APS sworn qualify for longevity pay in their fifth year of service. Under the new contract terms, longevity pay starts at $2,730 per year and increases topping of at $16,380 annually for those who have served 17 or more years.

CATEGORIES OF LONGEVITY PAY

The negotiated longevity pay under the new union contract deals with the overlap of 3 fiscal years. A fiscal year begins on July 1 of any given year and ends on June 30 of the following year. The longevity pay rates can be found on page 8 and 9 of the new union contract.

For fiscal year 2022 – 2023 that began on July 1 the  longevity pay scale bi-weekly annual amounts are as follows:

Beginning Year 5 through 5, $105 paid bi weekly, $2,730 annually
Beginning Year 6 through 6, $131 paid bi weekly, $3,406 annually
Beginning Year 7 through 9, $236 paid bi weekly, $6,136 annually
Beginning Year 10 through 12, $315 paid bi weekly, $8,190 annually
Beginning Year 13 through 15, $368 paid bi weekly, $9,568 annually
Beginning Year 16 through 17, $473 paid bi weekly, $12,298 annually
Beginning Year 18 and above, $630 paid bi weekly, $16,380 annually

https://www.cabq.gov/humanresources/documents/apoa-jul-9-2016.pdf/view

LIST OF 250 TOP CITY HALL WAGE EARNERS

Under the union contract, sworn police are entitled to overtime compensation at the rate of time-and-one-half of their regular straight-time rate when they perform work in excess of forty (40) hours in any one workweek. Time worked over 40 hours per week is compensated at time and a half of the officer’s regular rate of pay, or in the form of “compensatory time.” There is no contract provision placing a cap on the amount of overtime any officer can be paid. Compensatory time is the award of hours as already worked to be paid and is calculated at the rate of 1-1/2 times the hours actually worked. The maximum accrual of comp time for any officer is 150 hours.

At the beginning of each calendar year, City Hall releases the top 250 wage earners for the previous year. The list of 250 top city hall wages earners is what is paid for the full calendar year of January 1, to December 31 of any given year.

Review of the 2019, 2020 and 2021  top paid 250 highest paid wage earnings employed by the city reveals 160 of 250 top paid city hall employees were APD  sworn  police who were paid between $107,885.47 to $199,666.40.

For the calendar year of 2021, 126 of the top 250 city hall wage earners were APD sworn police officers ranging from the rank of patrol officer 1st class to the rank of Lieutenant. In 2019, there were 70 APD patrol officers in the list of 250 top paid employees earning pay ranging from $108,167 to $188,844. There were 32 APD lieutenants and 32 APD sergeants in the list of 250 top paid employees earning pay ranging from $108,031 to $164,722.

In 2020, there were 69 patrol officers paid between $110,680 to $176,709. There were 28 APD Lieutenants and 32 APD Sergeants who were paid between $110,698 to $199,001 in the list of the 250 top paid city hall employees paid between.

The City of Albuquerque updated the list for the year 2021. According to the list of the top 250 city hall wage earners, they were paid between $119,356.16 to $211,144.75.   146 of those 250 listed positions are  assigned to APD.

The lopsided number of APD sworn police officers listed in the top 250 paid city hall employees is directly attributed to the excessive amount of overtime paid to sworn police officers.

https://publicreports.cabq.gov/ibmcognos/bi/?perspective=classicviewer&pathRef=.public_folders%2FTransparency%2FTop%20Earners%20of%20the%20City%20of%20Albuquerque%20List&id=i5AAD1EA752BA417099BA819E482F6642&objRef=i5AAD1EA752BA417099BA819E482F6642&action=run&format=HTML&cmPropStr=%7B”id”%3A”i5AAD1EA752BA417099BA819E482F6642″%2C”type”%3A”report”%2C”defaultName”%3A”Top%20Earners%20of%20the%20City%20of%20Albuquerque%20List”%2C”permissions”%3A%5B”execute”%2C”traverse”%5D%7D

COURT APPROVED SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT

On April 10, 2014, the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), issued its report of the 18-month civil rights investigation of the Albuquerque Police Department (APD). The DOJ reviewed excessive use of force and deadly force cases and found that APD engaged in a “pattern and practice” of unconstitutional “use of force” and “deadly force” and found a “culture of aggression” within APD. On November 27, 2014, the City and the Department of Justice entered into the Court Approved Settlement Agreement (CASA) mandating 276 reforms. APD is one of 18 municipalities in the United States under a Federal Court consent decree for excessive use of force and deadly force. The link to the CASA is here:

https://www.cabq.gov/mental-health-response-advisory-committee/documents/court-approved-settlement-agreement-final.pdf

Within months after being sworn in on January 1, 2018, Mayor Tim Keller affirmed his commitment to implement all the DOJ mandated reforms agreed to under the CASA. Mayor Keller began implementing an $88 million-dollar APD police expansion program over a four-year period over increasing the number of sworn police officers from 898 positions filled to 1,200, or by 302 sworn police officers. The massive investment was ordered by Mayor Tim Keller to full fill his 2017 campaign promise to complete all the CASA reforms, increase the size of APD and return to community-based policing as a means to reduce the city’s high crime rates.

COMMENTARY AND ANAYSIS

APD Chief Harold Medina diverting legislative funding APD applied for and which was specifically allocated by the New Mexico legislature for “recruitment” and hiring of 67  APD Cops and then turning around and using it to pay APD 19 years of service veterans and additional $18,000 in incentive pay is so very wrong on so many levels.  It does not pass the smell test and it is akin to a “bait and switch” scam tactic by APD.  Medina did not disclose if he will benefit himself financially.

In all likely, Chief Medina has abused his authority or discretion by violating the spirit and intent of the state funding allocation.  APD had to apply for the funding and in doing so likely made the representation it would be used for “recruitment and hiring” with no mention that it would be used to pay incentive bonuses.  Incentive bonuses of $18,000 paid to 19-year APD veterans are not “recruitment and hiring”.

OBSCENE TOTAL

In February when the new 2-year APD contract was announced, the 8% pay raise and  the increased “longevity pay” of 5% was justified by saying APD needed to be more competitive to attract and retain new sworn police officers.   All other city employees received meager pay raises of 2.5% under the enacted 2022-2023 city budget.

It is difficult to understand and to justify paying 20-year law enforcement veterans an additional $18,000 more a year plus paying 100% of the officers’ medical benefits when those officers are also being paid $16,380 annually in longevity pay on top pf 8% pay raises resulting in a whopping $34,380 of incentive pay in one year

WHO WILL BENEFIT NOT DISCLOSED

APD Chief Harold Medina and all of his deputies are listed in the 250 top paid city hall employees and are paid between $128,409.85 to $177,562.68 a year.  Medina did not disclose if he and his high command will be paid the $18,000 in additional incentive pay.  Medina has retired before from APD and has upwards of 30 years of service years.  At least 4 of the Deputy Chiefs also are eligible to retire with over 20 years of service or more and Medina did not disclose if they will be given the additional $18,000.

APD Chief Harold Medina did not disclose exactly how many APD police officers who have 19 years of experience will actually qualify for the additional $18,000 in incentive pay.  Paying so much more to 20-year veterans is an attempt to keep employing an older generation of officer when what the city and APD really needs is a new, younger generation of police officer do the work and who have their entire law enforcement career ahead of them.

Since 2014,  APD has been under a Federal Court Order after the Department of Justice found APD had engaged in excessive use of force and deadly force and finding a culture of aggression within APD.   The 2013 DOJ investigation essentially found it was “experienced police officers”, which would include APD management and APD Chief Harold Medina, that created, participated and was aware of or who did not stop the culture of aggression within APD. Now Chief Medina wants to pay those very same  officers and additional $18,000 a year to keep them from retiring when they should probably just move on.

Simply put, police work is a young person’s profession that is both mentally, emotionally and physically demanding.   APD needs a new, younger generation of police officer who accept and are trained on constitutional policing practices and who do not resist the reforms mandated by the Court Approved Settlement Agreement (CASA).

MILLIONS AVAILABLE IN UNFILLED SWORN POLICE OFFICER FUNDING

The fiscal year 2023 approved General Fund budget for APD is $255.4 million, which represents an increase of 14.7% or $32.8 million above the fiscal year 2022 level. The APD approved budget fully funds 1,100 sworn police in order to accommodate growth, yet the department currently employs only 857 sworn police. In other words, APD has  243 full time positions that are fully funded that are vacant.

Starting pay for an APD police officer graduating from the academy and for the officers first year of probation is $21.27 an hour for a 40-work week, 52 weeks a year or $44,241.60 yearly. Therefore 243 vacant starting pay salaries for sworn police at $44,241.60 translates into $10,750,708 of potential unused salary funding.

During APD’s 2022-2023 budget review hearing, APD Chief Medina acknowledged that the department will likely not meet the 1,100-staffing level and said personnel funds for unfilled potions will cover other operating costs.  During the April 28 budget hearing, Republican City Councilor Dan Lewis questioned APD for more information on its budgeting strategy on using unspent sworn police officers’ salaries for other priorities. Lewis said this:

“I think it’s good for us to understand this is not a budget that [actually] funds 1,100 police officers. … We’re going to give you [funding for] 1,100 officers this year. We’re going to fund [the amount] just like we did last year. We’re continuing to do that, but I think at the very least what this council is going to need and want is a very specific breakdown of where those salary savings went because we didn’t hire those officers.”

The approved 2022-2023 APD budget of $255.4 million covers the continuation of the 8% pay increase that went into effect in January and then covers the additional 5%, for a total of 13% in APD sworn police raises that starts on July 1. 2022.

INCREASE NEW CADET HIRING BONUSES TO $25,000 WITH 5 YEAR COMMITMENT

After working a full 20 years, police officers who usually continue to work do so out of sure love of the job and their dedication to public service.  Medina wants to pay additional incentive on the “back end” of police officer careers who are eligible for retirement.  Incentive pay should be paid “on the front end” of a career to attract and keep a new generation of police officer.

It costs the city upwards of $60,000 a year to fully train a new police officer in the academy.  Once trained, there is no minimum number of years that an officer must work.  APD and recruiting efforts would be better served if more is offered as sign on bonuses.  As it stands, APD is paying $10,000 for new police cadet sign on bonuses. What should be offered are $25,000 in new cadet bonuses with a 5-year minimum service commitment.

CONCLUSION

Simply put, APD is awash in excessive unused personnel funding.  There is no reasonable excuse for Medina to divert funding given to the city by the state for recruitment and hiring of police officers and then to turn around and dole it out to pay $18,000 more in incentive pay to 19-year veterans, not when millions of vacant personnel funding is available. It’s Medina’s gross mismanagement of human resources at best and his incompetence at worse with an element of sure greed thrown in for good measure.